


Say When

by bertererei



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Foul Language, M/M, OOC, Panic Attacks, RomCom/Shojo cliches, Various one-sided ships, assumed cheating, misunderstandings for miles on end, modern day AU, my poor attempt at fluff, my poor attempt at humor, romcom, suffering for comic purposes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-03-30 21:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 47,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19035742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bertererei/pseuds/bertererei
Summary: Modern Day AU. Eren is one step away from proving his dad to be a filthy cheater. And in order to obtain this proof, he’s going to go undercover at a fancy-pants dormitory school while Jean pretends to be him at home.What can possibly go wrong?





	1. Day 0 - Saturday

**Author's Note:**

> While this is a Modern Day AU that doesn’t have any direct spoilers, I will be using later manga characters, terms, and scenes (especially Zeke’s backstory). If you’d like to avoid all possible spoilers, please exit out of this tab.
> 
> This is just me loving cliched RomComs and indulging myself with MarcelxEren so that it doesn’t pour out in the other stories. If anything, I promise this will be amusing/funny. At least, it’ll be to me. So if you don’t find this funny, I’m really sorry. 
> 
> GalliJaw, this is for you and your kind/wonderful encouragements. I really hope you enjoy this as much as I loved writing it!
> 
> There will be minor one-sided ships in the background of Mikasa-> Eren, Jean->Mikasa, Bertolt->Eren, Reiner->Eren, Floch->Eren nature and official pairings like GrishaxDina and GrishaxCarla, but those are really only there for humor/comic purposes. If you’re here for serious ships, I’m very sorry. The only serious ship is going to be MarcelxEren. Everything else will be fodder for my piss poor humor. And even then, MarcelxEren won’t be safe.
> 
> Inspired by the Fray’s “Say When.”
> 
> Warning: Modern Day AU. Various one-sided ships. Endgame MarcelxEren. Assumed cheating. Foul Language. My poor attempt at humor. My poor attempt at fluff. Misunderstandings for miles on end. Suffering (typical victims will be Jean, Floch, and Porco). Romantic/RomCom cliches. Panic attacks.

For as long as Jean has known Eren Jaeger, absolutely nothing good has come from being anywhere near that asshole.

In kindergarten, there was that pudding incident, where Eren bumped into Jean and both of them dropped their puddings. Instead of doing the sensible thing of telling the teacher that their puddings fell so could they please get new ones, Armin started to cry. It ended with Jean sitting in time out for the rest of the day while Eren and Armin both got brand new puddings.

In the first grade, it was an arm wrestle competition between himself and Eren that ended up somehow dragging Mikasa in. Jean ended up with a broken arm and a bloody nose while Eren got away with a paper cut (even to this day, Jean has no idea how he got that). He also might have fallen head over heels for Mikasa and her long, silky black hair that seemed to sway gently in the breeze (by breeze, he really means the AC) as she mercilessly broke his arm. But that’s neither here nor there.

In the second grade, it was an argument over who could stuff the most amount of pencils in their mouth. And it ended up with Jean vomiting-

Well, he made his point.

Jean has never come out as the winner, if only because both Armin and Mikasa back Eren up. And in three vs one, the one very rarely wins. In fact, the one never wins, especially when said enemies are Armin and Mikasa (Eren, Jean can defeat in a one-on-on. It’s just that that guy never plays fair. In fact, just last year, Eren dared to throw the playground sand in Jean's face in the middle of their argument about who would win in a fight, Mr. Levi or Mikasa in ten years?).

So he knows this is going to end up in yet another tragedy with him being humiliated as hell while Eren walks away with little to no scratch because Mikasa and Armin made sure of it. But it turns out that he must be stupider than he gave himself credit for, because he sits across from the three of them at a family diner anyways, curious to know why they called him out.

“Make it fast. I have cram school after this,” he tells them.

“No, you don’t,” Eren, the creepy stalker that he is, says. “That’s why we chose right now.”

Jean decides that if he says anything more on the topic, they’ll get even more distracted. So he turns to Armin. Of course, he takes a side glance peek at Mikasa along the way. She’s beautiful as always as she ignores Jean’s existence to sip her ice tea.

“Make it fast,” he repeats.

Armin, to his credit, nods seriously. He opens his mouth, hesitates, closes it, thinks a bit, and then opens his mouth again.

“Please pretend to be Eren for a week.”

“H-huh…? What?”

Eren makes a face like he expected Jean to not have the intelligence to keep up with their conversation. And Jean would just like to point out the unfairness of the situation here. Why the hell is he the one to receive that kind of look when Armin’s the one who asked for something so ridiculous?

“See, I told you he won’t go for it. It’s better to move on to Plan X192.”

Whoa. Plan X192? How many plans have they already gone through before they arrived at Jean?

“No, no. Explain yourselves first. What the hell are you guys doing that you need me to pretend to be Eren?”

The three of them glance at one another like they’re trying to decide now whether or not to tell Jean the truth. And damn it. What the hell? Shouldn’t they have already decided that before coming to ask such a ridiculous favor?

“You know how my dad’s always absent from home?” Eren finally asks.

No, actually. This is news to Jean. How the hell is he supposed to know about Eren’s home life when all they ever do is bicker about their preference in putting a slash through the number “7” or giving it a cap?

“I think he’s cheating on my mom.”

And how exactly does that translate into Jean pretending to be Eren for a week?

“I found a teacher at Marley Private Institute for the Gifted whose name is Zeke Jaeger.”

Plenty of people have the family name “Jaeger.” It’s a super common German name. Is this guy trying to claim copyright over it or something? Is that even something you can copyright? Maybe you’re supposed to trademark it? Shoot. They had a test on this two days ago, but Jean’s already forgotten everything he crammed the night before.

“And he looks like my dad, if my dad was blonde.” Eren then looks at Jean seriously as if he truly believes this shit coming out of his own mouth. “And when Armin casually brought up Doctor Grisha Jaeger to him, he emotionally shut down and refused to talk to us.”

Suddenly, everything clicks into place.

“W-w-wait! Are you telling me to pretend to be you so you can sneak into that Private Institute or whatever so you can talk to this Zeke guy?”

Armin beams. “That’s exactly it! See, Eren? I told you this will work!”

No, no. They’re not going to pretend that Jean already agreed to it. For one thing, what the hell’s up with these holes in this logic? Surely, Armin didn’t agree to go with whatever ridiculous thing that popped out of Eren’s mouth just because, right?

They’re not in elementary school anymore, damn it!

“I still think we should move on to Plan X310,” Eren grumbles.

Wasn’t the number X192 earlier? Where did the rest of 118 plans go? … Does Eren know what he’s saying? Or is he just pulling numbers out of his ass because he thinks it sounds cool?

“Jean can’t pull it off,” Mikasa says, her cold words cutting deeply into Jean’s heart. “He looks nothing like Eren.”

Armin glances at Jean and then at Eren. “I don’t know… They both have that glare down pat.”

Eren dares to scowl the same time Jean does. And when they both realize that they’re scowling, they both growl at the same time.

Just a little, Jean is starting to realize in horror that Armin might be right.

“Aren’t you guys forgetting the fact that we have different colored hairs?”

Armin pulls out a shopping bag from under the table and pushes it towards Jean. There’s a black hair wig in there. And…

“Are these make up?”

“We have to color your eyebrows and fix your contour lining. The two of you have similar enough build, but the facial structure needs a bit of a touch up,” Armin explains as if this is a normal thing that happens every day.

And Jean is a little freaked out by the fact that these guys have apparently have all the items even though he hasn’t agreed to anything. But he has a trump card that they won’t be able to counter.

“By a week, I’m guessing you don’t mean just for school, am I right?”

The three nod.

“I don’t really care about school, but I don’t want my mom to get a phone call that I missed. So even if you do your usual shit job, I don’t really care,” Eren agrees.

Then that means…

“So I’m supposed to pretend to be you in front of your mom for a week?” Jean deadpans.

You know, the woman who gave birth to Eren. The woman who probably knows Eren better than he knows himself (possibly not better than Armin and Mikasa, though. But thinking about that makes Jean depressed, so he’s going to shove it to the side for now). The woman who has been there by Eren’s side since he was a small child.

These dumbasses want Jean to pretend to be Eren in front of Carla and think that’s going to work?

“Just throw a tantrum and lock yourself in Eren’s room,” Armin tells him.

Mikasa nods. “That’s all Eren does.”

Eren frowns at his friends. Before he can protest, Jean cuts in.

“What’s my mom going to think if I’m gone for a week?”

There. They can’t force him now. If they’re worried about Eren’s mom, there’s no way that they’ll be able to hurt Jean’s mom-

“We gave her this,” Mikasa says.

She puts a flier on the table and pushes it towards Jean. When he reaches for it, she quickly pulls her hands back so they don’t accidentally touch. Small coldness like that makes Jean even more infatuated with her.

But he needs to focus on this.

What can a flier possibly say to convince his mom?

“… H-hey, did you guys make this flier?”

It’s a surprisingly professional-looking flier. The paper is good quality and nothing cheap like they find at the market. If it wasn’t these three that presented it to Jean, he actually would’ve believed that this was a real flier for a technology camp. That and the fact that the camp date is set to take place this week (starting Sunday afternoon, like any sane camp will start then) and coincidentally, this super amazingly fun camp is so prestigious that you can only apply and wait to be chosen to go.

“Yup,” Eren tells Jean.

Just in time, Jean’s phone begins to ring.

It feels like the world is slowing down as he reaches into his pocket to pull it out. The caller id says it’s his mom. But his mom rarely calls him when he’s out. He’s already thrown that tantrum at her (“It’s annoying, mom! No one wants to talk to people on the phone. Just text me what I need to know. I can at least check that whenever I want. But I don’t want to be on the phone!”). So this can only mean…

The waitress is here with their orders. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are not paying attention to Jean at all.

“I’m… going to take this,” Jean says.

He isn’t sure why, but he takes the call in the booth. And he swears Armin is watching him from the corner of his eyes, smirking.

“H-hello? Mom?”

“Jeanbo! Why didn’t you tell me you were chosen for this Technology Camp?”

Oh no. Oh no, no, no.

Jean feels his face drain of color. But the three aren’t even staring at him. In fact, Mikasa is staring at her fruit parfait with her eyes sparkling (Man, she’s so cute). Armin pours some ketchup to the side to dip his fries in (Who the hell just orders a plate of fries anyhow?). And Eren is comparing the sizes of his hashbrown and Jean’s. They must be about equal, because Eren nods satisfied (It better as hell be equal with how often the two of them throw a hissy fit at the poor waitstaff here about it).

“To think that my son will be smart enough to get into something as prestigious as a camp hosted by the Marley Private Institute for the Gifted! I heard that Armin tutored you for months to bring your grade up for it! And here, I’ve been lecturing you about stop playing those idol games and study. Mommy is very sorry for not understanding you!”

There’s no joy in Jean’s soul at his mom’s words. Because damn it. Damn it. He should’ve realized just what kind of games these three were playing. He should’ve realized-

Mikasa scoops the biggest strawberry in her parfait using her spoon and turns to Eren with a light blush on her face. But Eren isn’t watching her. He has his mouth open towards Armin, who has an exasperated smile on his face as he holds up two fries that are dipped in ketchup. The smile freezes as he spots the murderous look on Mikasa’s face.

Jean can’t even muster the strength to laugh.

“We’re going to celebrate tonight! Make sure not to eat anything too big so you don’t spoil your dinner! I’m going to make all your favorites. Oh, I better make sure your dad knows to come home early. Jeanbo, I’m very proud of you.”

The very one-sided call ends there. But Jean can’t bring himself to put his phone away.

Eren eats the fries in Armin’s hands and then finally notices the strawberry in Mikasa’s spoon. He grins at her, which makes the murderous intent all but disappear. Mikasa hides her blushing face with her scarf as Eren eats the strawberry. Then Eren turns his attention to his hashbrown, completely unaware of the terrifying expression on Mikasa’s face as she stares at her spoon. Without hesitation, she begins to devour her parfait with vigor (Haha, she’s so cute).

“You… you bastards…”

The three finally glance at Jean. He tries hard not to completely lose his temper at the smug looks on their faces.

“You got my mom?!”

Eren nods. “So it’s fine if you pretend to be me for this week. Your mom won’t worry about you missing at all.”

“Why didn’t you use this same excuse on your own mother?” Jean snaps.

“Because Plan C34 had unintended consequences!”

Jean doesn’t know what that means, but from the dark expression on Eren’s face, he gets that it was trauma-inducing. But damn it, why the hell does Jean have to take the fall for Eren’s stupid schemes?

“No use,” Mikasa sighs. She turns to Jean seriously. “I’ll hold your hand for three seconds if you agree to do this.”

…

What kind of a filthy animal does she think he is to agree to something so ridiculous? And why the hell does he feel so sorely tempted to agree to it?

“Mikasa, I keep telling you, we’re not selling you out like that!” Eren growls.

Armin nods. “Once we start compromising our pride like that, we won’t be able to turn back.”

What pride? Is Armin forgetting that both he and Mikasa follow Eren’s bidding without any will of their own? Where’s the pride in that, Armin?!

“One week!” Jean blurts out.

Eren gives him a look like he thinks Jean is an idiot. And Jean realizes that he should’ve phrased that better. Shut up, you stupid brat.

“Pretend to date me for one week and I’ll accept.”

Jean Kirstein, at the young age of 15, has forsaken his own pride.

Eren scowls. “You’re disgusting! Why the hell do I have to pretend to date-”

“Not you, you asshole! I mean Mikasa!”

That look of utter disgust on Mikasa’s face is slowly draining Jean’s health. But this is his chance. If he has to go along with this stupid ass plan X192 anyways (Or maybe it’s X191? They didn’t actually clarify), he might as well as get something good out of it.

“Think about it! I’ll be pretending to be Eren for the week. So it’ll be as if you’re-”

Mikasa’s eyes light up. She slams her hands on the table and stands, staring at Jean like he’s a genius.

That’s right. That’s right!

Jean is a genius!

“I accept!” Mikasa yells out without a second thought.

It’s not quite the beautiful and romantic as Jean imagined Mikasa accepting to date him will be. But he also thought that a chance like this won’t come until they were in their late 40’s when Mikasa finally gets sick and tired of supporting a bum Eren (Nevermind where Armin is in this scenario in his head or why Eren’s a bum. Or perhaps it’s more safe to say Eren’s a felon on death row?).

“This is such a bad idea!” Eren dares to complain.

Mikasa grabs him by the front of his shirt and looks at him seriously. “Let me do this for you.”

This is probably the only time Jean will ever see her be this enthused about going out with him.

“Whew. I’m so glad that this worked out,” Armin sighs in relief.

He takes out a suspicious black box with a skeleton stenciled on it (Jean bets Eren made it. He loves edgy shit) and sets it on the table.

“Otherwise, we would’ve been forced to use Plan ZZZ - ‘Last Resort.’”

What… an ominous title.

Jean decides that he likes living enough to not ask for more details.


	2. Day 1 - Sunday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Panic Attack.

Aha.

It is exactly as Marcel suspected.

Humming lightly under his breath, Marcel finds Porco’s secret stash hidden under the mattress. Pornos have been carefully placed to hide the true objective of today’s hunt.

The most recent Shojo Beat.

And seeing that Porco is serving detention with Mr. Magath until dinner, this is the perfect time to catch up on the most recent chapters. It’s clear from the stiffness of the binding that his brother hasn’t had the chance to read it yet. Marcel wonders if he should spoil the recent chapters, just to see the despair in Porco’s eyes.

Hehe. This is what Porco gets for eating the strawberry cake slice Marcel has been carefully saving for dessert.

*

A knock on the door startles Marcel from _Snow White with the Red Hair._

He glances at his phone clock and assures himself that it can’t be Porco coming back already (Even if it was, he’d just wave the Shojo Beat in front of Porco’s eyes and grin at the growing despair). Before he can react, though, the door opens and a boy Marcel has never met peeks in.

The boy is wearing a dark green beanie that covers most of his dark brown hair. Brilliant green eyes meet Marcel’s in sheepishness. The boy wears a simple black hoodie with black pants. There’s a green shirt with laces holding it together at the top in a tattered “V” shape under the hoodie. The boy pulls out his left earbud and smiles at Marcel.

“Hi, I’m your roommate.”

… Huh? Roommate?

No, no. Porco lucked out this year. Due to odd number of students, Porco ended up being the lucky bastard with a double room all to himself. They all teased Porco that this is his compensation for losing his spot as a Warrior to Reiner this year.

There’s no way that Porco’s luck can be this bad!

Probably because of Marcel’s frozen expression on his face, the boy’s lips press into a thin line.

“S-sorry,” Marcel says quickly. “I’m not in this room. This is Porco’s room. I’m… I’m his brother, Marcel.”

The boy makes a small “Oh” sound before smiling. “I’m Eren. Do you normally hang out in your brother’s room?”

“Not always.”

Eren chuckles and lets himself in. He’s carrying just a simple duffel bag and a relatively thin backpack. Isn’t that too little things to last a year? Is he one of those rich kids who’ll just buy more things at a later time? Marcel wonders what that must be like to have so much money.

“So uh… Can I just claim one of the beds?” Eren asks.

Right.

Because Marcel has been looking for the Shojo Beat, he completely upturned one of the mattresses. And he’s now sitting on the other bed, happily reading. The exposed pornos on the other bed is probably not a good first impression Eren’s going to have of his brother.

Marcel inwardly cackles at the thought.

“Sorry about that. Here, you can use this one. It doesn’t have pornos,” Marcel tells him sweetly, getting off of the bed he’s on.

He moves to hide the rest of the pornos under the mattress.

“Should I move my brother’s things off of that desk for you, too?” Marcel suggests.

“Would you? That’d be great. Thanks!”

 

*

 

They work in silence for a bit. Marcel moving his brother’s things away, Eren putting his things down. But Marcel must have gotten bored of the silence between them, because he starts talking. Eren makes sure to turn his music off to hear him better.

“It’s unusual for someone to transfer here,” Marcel says.

He lets the unspoken question hang between them, giving Eren the chance to answer if he wants to. It’s such a polite thing to do that Eren is caught off-guard. He’s more used to his friends’ rough demands for answers. Is this how real people treat one another?

“My mom’s going through a messy divorce.”

This is a lie that Armin crafted that Eren hopes will come true if things go well. When Eren asked why a divorce, Armin laughed darkly and said, “Because everyone gets too awkward to ask for more detail when you say that.”

True to Armin’s words, Marcel changes the topic.

“Well, welcome anyways. Because this is an elevator school, most people already have their own group of friends. So feel free to come find me if you need someone to talk to. Do you already have your uniform?”

“Yup.”

Eren takes it out of the duffel bag and hangs it up. This is actually an old variation of the uniform from the thrift store that Mikasa luckily spotted, saving them couple hundreds of dollars trying to rent it. Eren doesn’t think anyone would say much about it, since it still is a uniform of Marley Private Institute for the Gifted. But Armin told him that if anyone asked, he should mention that it belonged to his uncle.

Eren, by the way, doesn’t have an uncle.

“Then…”

Eren flinches when he realizes that Marcel is standing right next to him with a wide grin.

“… Shall I give you a tour of the school?”

What’s with this guy? Why’s he being so friendly? It makes Eren really uncomfortable. But he gets the feeling it’ll be suspicious if he doesn’t accept. After all, he’s supposed to be new to this school. No one probably expected him to have memorized the entire blueprint in case he needed to sneak into Zeke’s office to find evidence.

“Y-yeah. Thanks.”

 

*

 

_“All I can do now… is work. Work hard to make sure that you two die the most painful death possible.”_

There are vicious green eyes that have haunted Bertolt’s dreams since he was little.

Bertolt can’t articulate to you why those eyes frighten him so. But it’s to the point that he cannot meet people’s eyes without having a mild panic attack. Luckily, no one questions him anymore since he became a Warrior.

Bright green eyes that promise him death.

He’s never been able to figure it out. It’s not like he had a traumatic childhood. He was never kidnapped or abused. He didn’t have enemies or friends because he never really spoke up. He has always been a loner, preferring to not deal with panic attacks that will doubtlessly follow if he were to accidentally see someone’s eyes.

So whose eyes are these? Why does the owner of these eyes want him dead?

“And this is the library. What kind of books do you like to read, Eren? I personally love mysteries.”

How odd.

It’s Sunday, so Bertolt thought the library would be empty. Usually, people finish up their last assignments in their dorm rooms, don’t they?

Anxiety begins to nettle in his stomach, making him fidget. He clutches his books tightly to himself. He’ll come back later. Yes. That’s the best way to deal with this.

With that thought in mind, Bertolt turns quickly to leave-

Only to bump straight into the two he was trying to dodge.

His books fall to the carpeted ground with soft thuds. And he knows how this looks, okay? The creepy loner guy in the back of the classroom likes to read books about military weapons? It’s nothing weird. He has no plans to bring a gun to school. Please don’t look at him.

“Sorry Bertolt. We didn’t see you there,” comes the soothing voice of Marcel. “Eren, this is Bertolt, he’s a friend of mine. Bertolt, this is Eren. He just transferred in.”

While speaking, Marcel and Eren pick up the dropped books for Bertolt. He feels horrible for imposing on them like this. But Marcel has always gone out of his way to take care of everyone, and Bertolt knows that this is just part of his good nature.

Except Bertolt can’t stand that goody two-shoes trait of Marcel’s.

“Here you go.”

It’s only because Bertolt is so damned tall that his eyes end up meeting Eren’s as the transfer kid holds the books up for him to take.

Vibrant green eyes. Just like-

_“… make sure that you two die the most painful death possible.”_

Bertolt flinches away like he’s been burned. He hears something falls and realizes belatedly that it’s him.

He fell.

He’s on the ground on his butt, trying desperately to get away. His back hits one of the bookshelves. Dread slowly sinks in as panic takes over. He’s trapped. There’s nowhere to go. His eyes begin to water. His breathing quickens. Something ugly claws inside of his chest, tearing him apart.

No. No no no. Not like this. Not like this.

“Bertolt?” Marcel’s voice sounds so far away.

But Bertolt can’t register that fully. His eyes are locked on those green eyes that are set on him. He can’t look away. He can’t get away.

This person… Eren. Eren is going to kill him.

_Not again._

“Hey, can you hear me?” Eren asks.

Eren is kneeling in front of Bertolt, taking care so that they don’t touch. He keeps both his hands up in the air as if declaring his innocence. Bertolt knows that this person is anything but.

“I want you to match my breathing. Okay? Breathe in…”

He doesn’t really have a good reason as to why he obeyed Eren’s instructions. He doesn’t think it was fear, though. Although the vicious green eyes from his memory looks the same as Eren’s, Eren’s eyes right now look earnest.

The kindness in them overlaps and soothes away the hate in the eyes from Bertolt’s memory.

“Now breathe out.”

They take a few moments to just breathe. Bertolt follows as Eren instructs and demonstrates slowly. And slowly and surely, Bertolt finds himself feeling calm again.

“Better?” Eren asks him with a soft smile.

It’s completely different from what Bertolt expected from the owner of those vicious green eyes. Is this really the right person? Bertolt didn’t make a mistake?

“T-thank…”

Bertolt can’t bring himself to finish it.

There’s a lump in his throat that makes it impossible to speak around. He just lowers his gaze and hopes that Eren understands his feelings.

“Take your time,” Eren tells him.

Bertolt is tempted to look up to see his expression. Has it changed? Is it back to the vicious green eyes that Bertolt has so long ago been terrified of? Or…?

Eren’s eyes are kind. His smile looks sincere.

For a short while, the venomous voice that promised a painful death quietens in Bertolt’s mind.

 

*

 

They eventually manage to convince Bertolt to come with them to dinner. He stands with a bit of a distance away from them, keeping his head down for the most part.

Marcel is more or less used to how Bertolt is. They’ve attended this school since they were in kindergarten, and Bertolt has always been quiet and withdrawn. Marcel has, on many occasions, tried to reach out to him. But he’s been forced to accept that Bertolt can't handle being near other people. At least when he's alone, he doesn't immediately have a panic attack.

But to think that there was a way to help aside from just leaving him alone…

“Hey Eren, back there in the library… Uh… D-do you do things like that often?” Marcel finds himself asking.

Eren, who has been admiring the artworks displayed on the hallway, glances at Marcel questioningly. It takes him a second to realize what Marcel is talking about before he grins sheepishly.

“My friend Armin used to do that for me when I was younger.”

“You used to have panic attacks?” Marcel really hopes he’s not prying too much. But he’s curious.

Could someone who had no idea about these have helped Bertolt? In other words, if Marcel had actually gone out of his way to research panic attacks, would he have been able to help Bertolt before this moment? Is this a failure on Marcel’s part?

“Yeah. It was especially bad around my friend Mikasa’s family. Something about Mr. Levi and his friends really… threw me off. But in my defense, Mr. Oluo had his wisdom teeth removed when he met me for the first time. And when he grinned to greet me, blood flew out from his mouth. Ms. Petra likes to walk around with what looks like broken limbs. And that’s not even mentioning Mr. Eld’s and Mr. Gunther’s ‘Horror Shop Fun’ for Halloween…”

Marcel blinks. “Uh… W-what did you say that they do?”

“Oh, they’re a special effects team that gets called in for horror movies and action movies.”

Marcel decides that it’s not his place to judge.

“T-that sounds rough,” he manages to say evenly.

Eren laughs. Then he glances back at Bertolt, who doesn’t seem to be paying attention at all. “I’m glad that even I could help someone, even if it was just for a bit.”

Oh.

Marcel is wrong.

It doesn’t matter how many research Marcel conducts. It doesn’t matter if Marcel did reach out to Bertolt to help him through his panic attacks. Because, in the end, Marcel has never suffered a panic attack like that.

Him reaching out to Bertolt would have come off as insincere, no matter how good Marcel’s intentions are.

It’s a bit vexing, but he doesn’t think he would have been able to calm Bertolt with ease as Eren did.

“You know, Eren, this is the first time I’ve been defeated this thoroughly.”

Eren raises his brows. “Defeated? What are you talking about?”

It’s probably rude to consider this in terms of victory and defeat. But it feels so much like a competition that Marcel can’t help but to grin. This must be the rush that Porco mentioned. No wonder Porco is always trying to compete in every little thing. Marcel feels like he’s finally starting to understand his brother better.

“Things are going to be interesting with you around, isn’t it?”

 

*

 

Reiner blinks.

“Hey, that’s Bertolt, right?” he asks, nodding towards the tall Warrior who’s standing behind Marcel.

Annie doesn’t even glance up from her meal. “Nope.”

She’s obviously not paying attention. Reiner turns to Pieck, who is checking something on her phone.

“Bertolt?” he asks her.

Pieck makes a noncommittal sound without looking up from her phone. What is she looking that’s so important anyways?

Since it’s clear that neither girls will give him the time of day, Reiner sighs and stands up.

Inspector Reiner Braun will now report for duty!

He will investigate the true reason why Bertolt is here for dinner in the cafeteria during dinner rush. Typically, Bertolt gets bad panic attacks whenever there’s too many people. Because of that, he always eats during off-peak hours. But for Bertolt to be here right now must mean…

Something, anyways.

The point is for him to investigate that. So it wouldn’t do to figure it out before he leaves.

“Yo Marcel!” He calls out as he picks up a light jog towards them. “Bertolt!”

It’s not just Marcel and Bertolt. There’s another guy with them that Reiner doesn’t remember meeting. When Reiner jogs up to them, the guy looks up at him with too green of eyes. Wow. That’s vibrant. It’s kind of creepy how bright those eyes are.

“Reiner,” Marcel greets with a smile. “This here is Eren. He just transferred. Eren, this is Reiner.”

“Your eyes are green,” Reiner blurts out without much thought.

He realizes a second too late how stupid that sounds. Well, at least it’s better than saying that they’re creepy. But Marcel’s smile is twitching like he’s forcing himself to keep up the pleasantry. Bertolt is keeping his head down. Reiner can’t tell if that means he’s not paying attention or if that’s him trying to hide laughing.

Eren raises his brow. But instead of insulting Reiner for his stupid comment, he grabs Reiner by the front of his shirt to pull him down until their faces are just centimeters apart. Those green eyes are focused right on Reiner’s, and… oh god.

Forget Inspector Reiner! Right now, he’s Virgin Maiden Reiner.

Is he going to get his first kiss stolen? But why? Is he Eren’s type? Is this what they call love at first sight? Do things like this really happen in real life? Porco was sure that it can never happen. But Porco also buys every single otoges, bl games, and galgas he can get his hands on, so his sense of reality isn’t really trustworthy.

Normally, Reiner would’ve been able to easily escape from something like this, but he’s too flustered to make a move.

His kiss! His first kiss!

“And yours are… hazel, right?”

With that confirmation, Eren releases Reiner.

Reiner’s cheeks heat up belatedly. It feels like his brain is finally catching up with what just happened. This guy with too green of eyes just grabbed him and… examined his eyes? That intimately? Reiner thought for sure they were going to kiss at that distance! His heart feels like it’ll never calm down. He has a mental image of Porco smirking superiorly down at him, mocking him for thinking a scene from a shojo manga can happen in real life. But he bets that Porco won’t last two seconds under that kind of intense eye contact.

“Eren, let’s grab food,” Marcel says.

How cool. Does what just happened between Reiner and Eren not register to anyone else? Is Reiner the only one feeling like he just ran a marathon?

“I… I’ll help,” Reiner says, even though he has no idea what he means by that. What does he mean by helping? Is he going to carry their trays or something? What is he, a pack mule? Well, he does have a build for it, but he would very much like to be seen as a human!

Marcel gives him an unreadable look, but Reiner likes to think that it might be concern. He’s normally not this stupid, but everything that comes out of his mouth sounds something really dumb right now.

Curse the powers of the Virgin Maiden!

At least Bertolt is still looking at the ground. Reiner is pretty sure that Bertolt didn’t even notice the almost kiss that just happened. Reiner wonders just a tad if maybe Bertolt is actually asleep.

“Where are you seated? We’ll meet you once we’re done,” Eren tells Reiner.

“O-over there,” Reiner says, pointing at Annie and Pieck.

“Porco’s not here yet?” Marcel asks Reiner.

“Haven’t seen him.”

Marcel nods. “Bertolt, are you going to eat with us?”

There’s a small movement of Bertolt’s head that Reiner interprets as yes. Marcel leads Eren and Bertolt towards the line for food, chatting lightly about how the system here works. To Reiner’s knowledge, the food here is free since it all comes out as part of their tuition. The cafeteria is open from 6 am to 8 pm, too. So as long as you come during that time, you’ll be able to eat. You do need to scan your student ID to get in, though. He wonders if things are different elsewhere.

Since it’ll be kinda dumb to just stand here awkwardly, Reiner quickly makes his way back to Pieck and Annie.

“It is Bertolt,” he reports to them as Inspector Reiner Braun.

They finally look up at him and then around until they see Bertolt.

“Oh,” Annie says.

Pieck raises a brow. “Did Marcel finally get to him? I’m glad. Bertolt always looked too lonely.”

“There’s a new transfer kid with them. I think he likes me. We almost kissed.”

Both Annie and Pieck stare at him for a second longer before sighing. Annie returns her attention to her dinner and Pieck to her phone.

They sit in silence until Marcel, Bertolt, and Eren joins them.

 

*

 

Porco is not having a good day.

Detention with Mr. Magath is always annoying, but it’s nothing that he can’t handle. Sure, it was annoying to write and rewrite reflection essays until that slave driver was satisfied. But at least it’s all done and over with.

No, what was the most annoying was Mr. Calvi poking his head in during detention to casually inform Porco that a transfer student will be rooming with Porco now.

“His name is Eren Kruger. Make sure to treat him well. If you don’t, we’ll know.”

Ugh. Why does Porco have to do this? Sure, he gets that he’s the only one with space in his room, and he’s not protesting about that (actually, he is. He was looking forward to having a double room all to himself, damn it!). But why the hell does he have to watch out for a transfer student?

Isn’t that something the Warriors should do?

Or did Mr. Calvi forget that Porco is no longer a Warrior?

Damn it.

So much for his easy life!

Sure, he had been super upset when Reiner stole (okay fine. It wasn’t guaranteed that he would get the position. But Porco’s grades have always been better than Reiner’s!) the Warrior position. But then he realized that he would finally have some time to himself that Warriors wouldn’t normally get. In other words, he would have ample of time to play through his backlog of games and catch up on the mangas that’s been calling out to him to read.

It was supposed to be perfect.

Added to the fact that he had a double room all to himself, Porco was going to laze around all day in his room once classes were finished!

And now that sweet dream of his is flying away thanks to this mysterious transfer student, Eren Kruger.

Porco swears to get his revenge as he stomps his way to the cafeteria for dinner.

“Oh, there he is. Porco! We’re over here!” Marcel yells out when Porco walks into the cafeteria.

“Let me grab food before coming over!”

With that, Porco rushes through the food line as fast as possible. Unluckily, he came too late to grab one of the mango puddings. It’s probably a fool’s hope to think that his brother picked one up for him, right? No, Marcel’s more likely the type to grab one to eat in front of Porco, even though he doesn’t even like those damned puddings. He honestly doesn’t understand why people think Marcel is such a good person.

Porco makes his way over to the group with a tired sigh.

“You’ll never believe the day I’m hav…”

The seat to the right of Marcel is not empty.

The seat to the right of Marcel, that everyone in this group should know is Porco’s, is not empty.

Instead, there’s a guy that Porco has never met before sitting in Porco’s seat.

“Who-”

“Porco, this is Eren. He just transferred in and will be your roommate. Eren, this is Porco, my brother,” Marcel introduces.

Right.

This is why people think Marcel is such a nice person.

When Marcel sees someone that he thinks needs help, he jumps to do so. The “White Knight Syndrome,” Porco used to joke. Except the joke isn’t so funny anymore, now that Marcel isn’t fuming over the fact that Bertolt rejected his offer of friendship yet again.

Actually, now that Porco looks again, Bertolt is sitting with them.

Huh?

Did… Did Marcel manage to conquer Bertolt? Is that why he decided to move onto the transfer student as his next charity project? Damn it, Marcel! Learn some shame! Why is it that when all Porco can do is capture people in games with guides, Marcel does it so easily in real life?

For once, why can’t this stupid older brother of his side with him?

“You know you can sit down, right, Pock?” Pieck asks him with an amused smile.

He can’t even muster up the anger to be called by that humiliating nickname. Because his eyes catch sight of one more unfair thing.

Eren has one of the mango puddings.

No one else has it. Just Eren. No one has any trash of the pudding, either. That means no one else ate it.

That means this bastard not only stole Marcel but also the last pudding!

Instead of red hot rage, Porco feels his eyes sting with tears. No, no! He’s supposed to be angry! He's supposed to be the type of man who turns all of his emotions into anger. The red hot rage kind of cool guy! He’s supposed to be…

“Are… are you crying?” Marcel asks, looking just as shocked as Porco feels.

“N-no.”

Why is Porco’s voice shaking? It’s just a damned pudding!

Everyone is glances at each other awkwardly, most likely trying to get someone else to speak up and talk to Porco. Bastards! All of them! They can’t even do something simple as comforting him when he’s down?

Then again, they're Warriors (Or in Porco's case. Was a Warrior). They know how to take care of themselves. 

“Hey, do you want this pudding?” Eren asks, holding the last pudding up. “When I’m having a bad day and feel like crying, sweets really cheer me up.”

Porco stares blankly at the pudding. “C-can I…?”

Eren nods.

Without considering his own pride, Porco takes the pudding in his hands. The mango pudding! The last mango pudding! It’s here! All for him!

He can’t help but to grin. “I guess today isn’t all that bad then.”

 

*

 

The students of Marley Private Institute for the Gifted are just like Eren’s own group of friends.

Batshit insane.

Porco shovels food in his mouth while keeping his eyes locked on that pudding. It seems that he takes the whole “dessert only after meal” thing very seriously. By his side, Reiner seems to be excitedly talking about something that no one seems to be paying attention to. Eren tried to keep up, but he got lost at some of the weird slang Reiner is throwing around.

Annie is looking over Pieck’s shoulder. The two girls grin at whatever is on Pieck’s phone, making Eren feel slightly fearful for all their lives. He’s not sure why. He thinks it’s just a trained response after seeing Mikasa’s (and his own mother’s) grins.

Bertolt seems to be fidgeting nervously in his seat now that he’s done eating. He doesn’t look like he wants to leave, though. Or maybe he’s waiting for someone else to leave first? Eren wonders if he should take pity on the guy. Everyone’s more or less finished, right? They should probably leave.

With that thought, Eren turns and accidentally meets eyes with Marcel. Has this guy been staring at Eren the whole time? Did he want to talk about something? Or maybe it’s just one of those cases where Marcel was dazing and they just happened to meet eyes? Eren’s more willing to believe that.

Marcel startles before giving Eren a sheepish smile.

“Sorry about my friends. They’re loud, aren’t they?”

Eren finds himself smiling. “It’s nicer like this. My friends are like this, too. You look away for a second, and all of a sudden, half the chemistry room is on fire and Sasha’s trying to cook potatoes.”

He thought that they weren’t conversing that loudly, but it seems that Pieck somehow heard them talk.

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot to ask. Where did you transfer from?”

At the question, it seems like everyone at the table has turned to stare at Eren. Or perhaps they were all waiting to grill Eren in the first place? Well, whatever the case, this is going to be important in establishing himself here.

To make sure that no one realizes that he’ll only be here for one week (That’s how long the school will tolerate your existence here when you haven’t paid the full cost of tuition. It's why he decided on one week as the time limit), he needs to put on a convincing act.

“From Shiganshina High in Eldia County.”

Most of the people here seem to be confused as to where that is. Makes sense. Since Marley Private Institute for the Gifted is an elevator school, they probably never concerned themselves with other schools. In fact, Eren doesn’t even remember competing against this school in national competitions like sports or debate teams. Maybe private schools have their own rotation with each other?

“It’s not too far from here. Just about twenty minutes or so of a walk,” Eren explains to them.

“Why transfer here, then?” Annie asks. She tilts her head to the side so that both her eyes can be seen behind her bangs.

“My mom’s going through a messy divorce. She wanted to get me away from my dad in case he came after me with the syringe again.”

Ah, he probably shouldn’t have said that last part. Since that was back when he was 10 and was being a huge baby about his flu shot. Not even Armin kicked up a fuss like he did, which his dad brought up multiple times.

But the others are looking at him with horrified expressions, so at least he knows they won’t ask anymore?

“W-well, h-how are you liking it here?” Reiner asks, quickly changing the topic. “Did Marcel give you a tour?”

Eren nods. “Yeah. It seems pretty neat and organized. The only thing I’m not sure if I still get is the whole ‘Warrior’ thing?”

It sounds edgy as hell and wasn’t something Eren expected from a private school. Or perhaps it makes sense because it’s a private school? They don’t have to go through county regulations and all that.

“That’s for the kids with the best grades,” Marcel explains. “At the end of every year, a group of kids are chosen to be the Warriors for the next year. We’re given special privilege by the school and teachers, and in return, we have extra duties to take care of.”

Eren nods. “Oh, I see. It’s like the honors program.”

“Except for Pock here, we’re all Warriors this year,” Pieck volunteers.

Porco scowls at her as he opens his pudding. “Don’t call me that!”

Oh, Eren thought Porco would be more hostile by the fact that he’s the only one who isn’t part of this “Warrior” thing. But it seems Porco is a little more mature… Well, as mature as someone who bursts into tears when introduced to someone new and only stops crying when given pudding can be.

“Since you don’t have any record, they probably won’t let you be a Warrior. But you can aim to be one for next year,” Reiner adds.

“I guess that means you and I will be spending a lot of time together, huh?” Eren asks Porco.

The guy barely glances at Eren, more interested in the pudding.

“I’ll be relying on you then.”

Porco’s hands still. He slowly lifts his head from the pudding and stares at Eren with… uh… Is this guy okay? Why are his eyes so damned shiny? Don’t tell Eren he’s going to burst into tears again? They don’t have another pudding on hand to stop it, do they?

“Y-yeah! Y-you can rely on me!” Then a little more excitedly to everyone around the table, Porco yells, “I’m relied upon!”

And yup, it’s just as Eren thought.

These guys are batshit insane.

He’s going to fit in just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I… I’m home,” Jean stutters as he walks into the Jaeger household.
> 
> He’s wearing the black wig and Eren’s stupid black hoodie (how many of these does he have? Wasn’t he wearing one when he left for that private school or whatever?). Armin had been certain this would be all he needs, so Jean is hopeful that he’s right.
> 
> The sound of vegetables chopping stops. Carla peeks out from the kitchen to stare at Jean.
> 
> It is exactly as Jean feared.
> 
> This woman isn’t fooled even for a second.
> 
> “… Jean, sweetie, this isn’t your home. And that wig… A-are you pretending to be Eren?”
> 
> And you know what? Eren never said anything about having to keep the fact that he’s pretending to be Eren a secret. So take that, Eren. This is what happens when you suddenly spring a ridiculous plan like this on Jean.
> 
> “Y-yeah. He’s trying to meet this guy named Zeke Jaeger?”
> 
> Carla lets out a delighted squeal. “We weren’t going to say anything until they were both older, but if he figured it out, then I guess that’s that! My little Eren is so smart to figure it out by himself!”
> 
> Jean doesn’t wisely mention that it was probably Armin who made the connection.
> 
> “How long are you pretending to be Eren for?” 
> 
> “A-about a week, ma’am.”
> 
> Carla laughs. “Now, now. Don’t be such a stranger. Until this week’s over, you’re Eren 2.0. And when that cute son of mine comes back, I’ll make sure to have a firm talk with him about dragging his friends into ridiculous plans. Honestly, I don’t understand where he gets it from!”
> 
> Jean watches as Carla returns to the kitchen. Instead of resuming to chop the vegetables, she begins to sharpen her knife.
> 
> He’s suddenly really dreading this week.


	3. Day 2 - Monday

“Hey Eren! Time to wake up!”

It takes Eren a groggy second to realize that the person shaking him awake is not Armin or Mikasa. By the time he has punched the stranger that dared to have snuck into his room, he recalls the plan of sneaking into Marley Private Institute for the Gifted and all that has happened thus far. 

“P-Porco! I-I’m so sorry!”

Eren mentally thinks of potential sweets to give this guy to stop him from crying. He thinks Mikasa put some candy in his bag yesterday. Will these work as pudding substitute? Or does Porco only accept puddings?

Porco glares at him, holding his nose. Damn, Eren his hit nose? Is it bleeding? It’s not broken, right? There’s no everlasting damage? Because Eren doesn’t know how to dodge prison without Armin and Mikasa by his side. Could he maybe change places with Jean? So Jean will go there in his place? It might work… 

“You normally punch people trying to wake you?” Porco grumbles.

“N-no? I don’t think so? I think it’s just nerves being in a new place.”

Surprisingly, Porco seems to accept that.

“Get dressed in your uniform. We’re grabbing breakfast then going to class.”

… Class?

Eren was… hoping to use this time to track down Zeke and stalk him to figure out his schedule. But the minute he thinks of voicing his real plans, he sees Porco rubbing his nose.

Damn it.

When did he become such a softie?

 

*

 

The rumors of a transfer kid is already more than enough to set the rumors mills on fire. But the fact that this transfer kid is now Porco’s roommate has more or less worried everyone in the class.

Colt himself doesn’t have that high of an opinion of Porco, who is rough around the edges bully half the time and the other half a snarling rabid dog. But even he feels that this kind of excessive worry, especially for a kid they haven’t met yet, is starting to get annoying.

“What if Porco’s already drowned him?” someone whispers frightfully.

“That poor kid! I wonder if he’s curled up somewhere, crying…”

“Too bad he couldn’t room with Marcel. Now that’s someone who’ll take good care of you.”

Even if they say that, Marcel is… No, no. It’s not Colt’s place to judge. Marcel is a good person. A very kind and nice person who has saved Colt (and Reiner before he beefed up like crazy) many times from Porco’s wrath. He’s just not going to think about the toothpaste incident.

The door to the classroom opens with an annoyed Porco walking in, followed closely by who Colt assumes is the transfer kid. Sensing Porco’s bad mood, everyone quickly shut up and settled into their seats. It’s probably because of that. But they end up listening in on the conversation between Porco and the transfer kid.

“W-what about this one? It’s mango flavored,” the transfer kid says, holding up a small packaged candy.

“I’m telling you, it’s fine. It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”

The transfer kid looks distressed. He stuffs the candy back in his pocket of his uniform and must have found something, because his eyes light up. He pulls out a lollipop and then freezes when he sees the wrapper. The kid stares at the lollipop and then at Porco and then back at the lollipop. For a brief second, he closes his eyes as if this is the hardest thing he’s about to do.

Then he holds the lollipop up for Porco with the most dissatisfied expression on his face.

“This is my favorite lollipop flavor. I’ll give it to you.”

What are they, five?

“I’m saying that I’m…” Porco stops when he sees the determined look on the transfer kid’s face. He lets out a soft sigh and holds out his hand.

The transfer kid looks torn between happiness that Porco accepted and sadness that he can’t eat his favorite lollipop. But with a brave expression on his face, he hands it over to Porco.

Colt peers carefully at the lollipop to figure out the flavor. Later, he’ll get one for the transfer kid, because this is all shades of pathetic.

Porco casually rips the wrapper off and throws it away on a random kid’s desk, not caring about the mess. The transfer kid immediately picks it up with an apologetic smile to the owner of the desk. Colt realizes with a start that the rest of his classmates might actually be right. This kid is a prey, just like the rest of them. Then no matter what reservations Colt had at first, he needs to put it aside to help this kid.

If only Porco became a Warrior instead of Reiner, this wouldn’t be a problem! At least Reiner is easy to deal with, even if he gets all sorts of weird when he starts talking. You just have to tune him out and nod.

“Hey Eren,” Porco calls.

The transfer kid glances at him curiously. “Ye-”

Porco’s aim is when the transfer kid opens his mouth. The minute he sees his chance, he shoves the lollipop into Eren’s mouth. He then lightly taps the transfer student’s forehead with his knuckles.

“It’s fine.”

Then Porco turns around, missing the soft blush on the transfer student’s face.

And if this was a romance novel, Colt has no doubt that this is the moment that the girl falls head over heels for the cool and suave love interest. If this was a shojo manga, there would be flower petals and sparkles in the background to tell you that this is a romantic and important scene. If this was a romantic game, this will be the beginnings of unlocking the love interest’s route.

However, this is real life.

More than anything, this is Porco.

Colt is pretty sure that no one in the class is convinced by this strange act that he’s putting up. After all, they grew up with him. They know exactly what this guy is like. Cool? Suave? You must be thinking of Pieck.

As if to prove that theory correct, Porco marches over to Colt and lightly kicks his chair.

“Move.”

… Pardon?

When Colt makes no move to do so, Porco kicks the chair again.

“You deaf now, Colt? I said, move.”

“Porco, I’m going to sit over here,” the transfer kid says, motioning at an empty chair in the front of the class.

Immediately, Porco snarls at him. “No, you’re not. We have assigned seats, and I’m assigning your seat next to mine.”

“But if I’m next to you, I won’t pay attention to the lecture,” the transfer kid reasons.

The class watches in shock as Porco seems to actually take that into consideration. With an annoyed scowl that’s marred by his blush, Porco nods. 

“Fine. But if you need anything, just yell out.”

Yell out…? 

But the transfer kid is sitting in the front of the class while Porco’s seat is more to the back next to Colt. If they start yelling at each other during the lecture, no one will be able to focus.

And yes, they’re not Warriors. But that doesn’t mean they can’t become Warriors by studying hard. And yeah, Colt’s chances are probably pretty low (After all, aside from Reiner, the Warriors have remained constant throughout their lives), but he doesn’t want to give up without trying.

“So uh… I see you’re getting along with the transfer kid,” Colt says to Porco.

Porco nods as he settles into his desk. “That kid relies on me,” Porco brags with a satisfied smile.

Colt has no idea what that means or how Porco arrived on that conclusion. But he decides that it’ll probably be good for his own sanity to not question it.

 

*

 

According to Marcel, the morning classes are general education courses that’s divided between the Warriors and everyone else. The students stay in one classroom while the teachers rotate through to keep the hallways empty as much as they can. That means that it’s near impossible to mingle with the crowd to “accidentally” go to Zeke’s class.

After lunch, you go to your selected course of study, which is open to both Warriors and not. This lasts until three or whenever the instructor releases you. It seems that Zeke is too young of a teacher to be responsible for these afternoon selected study. So Eren went ahead and signed up for art. 

Since it looks like he won’t be able to “accidentally” run into Zeke in a normal, everyday setting, Eren has no choice but to create an opportunity himself.

At least, that was the original plan.

But Porco’s eyes are glued on him all through the morning classes. Any little move Eren makes, Porco seems to be judging. It makes paying attention to the lecture nearly impossible. Even though Eren promised Armin that he’ll take diligent notes so that Armin can make a long list of differences between a public and private school for his senior research paper, he struggles to stay focused because of the death glare.

Any time Eren glances towards Porco, though, the guy quickly looks away with a faint blush on his face.

This guy still hasn’t forgiven Eren for this morning, has he? 

The minute morning classes are over, his fears are confirmed.

Porco grabs him by the arm and yanks him out of his chair.

“C’mon, let’s get lunch.”

But instead of the cafeteria, they go to the back of the school to deck it out… is how things would have gone if this was Jean.

But they end up normally at the cafeteria. The Warriors don’t seem to be here yet, so Porco leads them to get food first. 

Eren blinks slowly. “You’re… you’re not going to fight me?” he asks Porco.

Porco, who seems more interested in comparing which of the lunches have more meat in them, lets out a small mutter that Eren can’t make out. Is that a yes? Is that a no? Eren can’t figure this out.

“Ugh, I’m tired. Carry me, Porco!” Marcel groans as he throws his arms around Eren from the back.

Eren flinches and turns, but Marcel seems to be half-asleep, leaning against him like this. With a soft sigh, Eren supports Marcel to an empty table.

“I’ll grab you something to eat,” he says as he sits Marcel down.

Almost immediately, Marcel’s head hits the table. A soft snore can be heard. Just how bad were his morning classes for him to be like this? Seeing that the other Warriors aren’t here yet, he can’t judge the damage. 

He returns to the food line to find Porco to ask for help in finding something to eat for Marcel.

“Why? Just let him starve.”

How cold.

“He looked really tired so-”

Porco rolls his eyes. “That’s his own damned fault. If he can’t keep up with the pace, he should drop out.”

“Is he allergic to anything? Does he hate eating anything? I’ll just avoid those,” Eren decides.

“You know he’s tired because he was up all night gaming or whatever. Look, the other Warriors are fine.” 

Eren follows Porco’s gaze and sees the rest of the Warriors (minus Bertolt. Eren hopes that guy isn’t having a panic attack somewhere alone), all looking like they’re half-asleep. They stumble as they walk, they struggle to keep their eyes open, and they keep nodding off. There is absolutely nothing “fine” about this.

“… I think your sense of ‘fine’ might be off.”

“It’s fine. It’s fine. They signed up for it.”

Eren sighs. “Just because they signed up for it doesn’t mean they should look like the walking dead. Aren’t you worried?”

“What’s there to be worried about? They’re Warriors.”

To be honest, Eren’s more worried about that kind of line of thought. Does every single one of them think like that? It can’t be healthy. 

But he figures it really isn’t his business. He won’t be here longer than a week anyways. He shouldn’t get too involved.

For now, he decides to just grab something simple for Marcel and himself to eat.

 

*

 

“You chose art for your study?” Pieck asks with a tired smile. “That’s mine, too! Let’s walk together to class.”

She wishes she can show a little more enthusiasm, but her brain hasn’t recovered from the intense 1500 questions test of various subjects they’ve been taking all morning. She hit around 850 questions before she ran out of steam. From there, it felt like pulling teeth as she trudged through the rest of the questions. She managed to barely hit 1200 questions when they ran out of time.

Tomorrow, they’ll go over the answers while getting a stern lecture of not being able to finish something “as simple” as 1500 questions in 4 hours.

The standards expected from the Warriors is a little too intense sometimes.

“That sounds good. What did the rest of you choose?” Eren asks. He looks a little like he’s trying to carry the conversation by himself, probably to cheer up the rest of the Warriors.

Pieck really appreciates the sentiment. But if he could stray away from asking them questions, that would be absolutely perfect.

When a tired silence settles on the table, Porco sighs heavily and starts pointing.

“Marcel and Reiner are both in engineering. Annie’s in bio. Bertolt’s history. I’m in lit with Colt.”

“In lit? So literature? You write things, Porco?”

Porco’s cheeks tint red as he pretends to be nonchalant. “S-something like that.”

If Pieck wasn’t feeling so tired, she would have jumped at this chance to tease him about the romantic cheeseball chock-full of cliches he used to write in middle school. But as it is, she just wants to put her head down and sleep like Marcel is. The damned show off finished all 1500 questions within the time limit, and knowing him, she has no doubt that they're all correct. No wonder he's so tired right now.

“I wouldn’t mind reading-”

“Hell no!” Porco snaps, his blush spreading. “No one’s reading my shitty writing!”

“O-oh… s-sorry, I guess.”

Porco glowers, probably recalling all the teasing they all piled on him because he has the best reactions. Really, if he learned to be more like Marcel, calm and collected, even when his heart is on the line, they probably wouldn’t tease him as much. Teasing Marcel is like talking to water. Absolutely useless and boring.

“Do you like showing your sketches?”

Eren makes a face. “Ah… I… personally don’t mind. But everyone aside from Mikasa have told me that I suck and should stop wasting paint.”

Pieck can’t help but to find that interesting. And if she was more awake, she would most definitely ask him specific questions. Next time, she promises as she tries not to fall asleep in her salad.

“You have it rough, too, huh?” Porco says, patting Eren’s back.

Oh. That’s new.

Normally, Porco’s reaction to someone else’s misery would’ve been to laugh and mock them. Porco himself wouldn’t mean any harm by it. It’s just how he is. He’s a bit crude kind of guy who deals with most things by laughing at it or challenging it. The only way to deal with him is to either mock him back or just quietly take it.

Marcel lets out a loud yawn and stretches. He rubs his eyes as he glances around the table before his eyes land on the tray of food that Eren got for him. 

“Good morning, Marcel,” Eren tells him with a sheepish smile. “I wasn’t sure what you might be in the mood for, so I just grabbed what I liked. If you want, I can get you something else.”

Marcel’s head snaps over to Eren. It looks like he might not be fully awake, because he stares blankly at Eren. 

“H-hey Marcel?” Eren asks, snapping his fingers in front of Marcel’s face.

“I… I could’ve gotten this myself,” Marcel manages out. Is his voice shaking? Pieck can’t quite tell. 

“Oh, shut it, Marcel! Just say thank you and be happy,” Porco growls.

Eren puts his hand on Porco’s shoulder to stop him. With a soft smile, he turns to Marcel. “I know. Porco told me that you could.”

“I could’ve gotten this myself,” Marcel repeats, staring at the food. “I could’ve.”

“Yes, you could’ve,” Eren agrees gently.

That must have been what Marcel wanted to hear, because he nods. Then softly, he says, “Thank you.”

Pieck feels like she’s witnessed something important. And if her brain was working, she feels like she would’ve already put it all together. But for now, she’s just going to file this away for future analysis and tiredly smile like everyone else.

 

*

 

Engineering study is as boring as always. At the very least, they ended early thanks to a small bandsaw accident that Marcel most definitely didn’t cause. He doesn’t know why Reiner said such accusing things. It’s hurtful.

Sure, Marcel just happened to lightly bump into the kid next in line for the bandsaw because he was still tired from the test in the morning. And it just so happened that that kid stumbled into the danger zone and hit the guy working the bandaw. It clearly isn’t Marcel’s fault at all. But because he was near the accident, he even offered to take the injured kid to the clinic while everyone else was dismissed for the day.

And now he has the rest of the day free to do what he wants.

He wonders if he should pay Porco a visit in his dorm room, but knowing his brother, he’s probably not in there. Then where might he be? The library? It’s possible. Porco runs there when he absolutely doesn’t want to be bothered. The shooting range? Not as likely. On the rare occasion that Bertolt isn’t there, Porco won’t be allowed there, either. 

Wherever he is, it’s most definitely not in his own class. Then the next possible classroom might be…

Humming lightly under his breath, Marcel makes his way to the art room. 

There are barely ten kids in the art room. Because Willy Tybur is such a relaxed teacher, he allows his students a lot of freedom in what they want to do, including going outside to paint or sketch if the mood strikes. So the room is always this empty.

Pieck is on one of the displays, fast asleep. It seems that she’s the model for today (by that, Marcel guesses that she just wanted to rest after the test this morning). There are few kids by her side, sketching furiously. Her fan club, Marcel guesses without examining further.

In another corner of the room, a still life composition has been set up. There doesn’t seem to be anyone interested in it, though. Willy’s at his desk, a pleasant smile on his face as he pretends to conduct along to the classical music playing softly as background.

The atmosphere in this room is always so peaceful. It always makes Marcel a little wistful that he didn’t choose art. It would’ve been the perfect way to relax after intense Warriors-only class in the morning. If Porco hadn’t chosen something as worrying a future as literature, Marcel might have been tempted to pick art. Might, of course, being the key word. 

As he guessed, Porco is here. He’s sitting by the door with the Shojo Beat Marcel forgot to finish reading yesterday. But his eyes aren’t on the manga. He’s busy staring.

“Yo Porco,” Marcel greets.

Porco manages a nod but doesn’t look away from whatever it is that he’s looking at.

And well, Marcel supposes that he doesn’t blame his brother.

Because that piece that Eren is working on looks rather fantastic. 

The rest of the students in the room are gathered in a wide semi-circle around Eren and his canvas. Eren doesn’t seem to have noticed. He has his earbuds in, and his eyes are set on the canvas and occasionally on the colors on his palette. His movement is smooth, but not precise. He sometimes pauses for a second or two, tilting his head to observe the canvas for a bit before trying different colors and shapes.

“Wow,” Marcel finds himself saying.

From where he is, the painting looks to be a stage of some sort. There’s a single lone figure on it with the lights blaring bright, causing a huge shadow of that person to reflect on the stage walls. It seem the stage is set up in perhaps a ghetto somewhere? It doesn’t look too fancy, and there’s faint sign of mountains in the background (actually, those looks kind of like walls). The stands around the stage are filled with various people of different shapes and sizes, seemingly all cheering and smiling. It looks like a lively performance.

Eren takes two steps back from the canvas, staring at the whole thing from a distance. Willy stands up at the sight. He has a goofy smile on his face as he happily skips over to provide critique. 

But Eren must not be done with the piece because he reaches over and squirts a rather alarming amount of red on his palette. He takes the time to really dip his brush into the red paint. 

Everyone around him peers at him curiously. In fact, Willy seems a bit frozen in place.

And as everyone watches in horror, Eren steps up to the canvas and makes an exaggerated slashing motion with his brush across his canvas. The red paint smears angrily across the stage, swallowing the single figure within seconds. Eren pulls his arm back for another slash-

Willy grabs Eren’s hands with both of his. His face is pale as he screams out, “Stop! Stop! That’s enough, Eren!”

This is probably the most distressed they’ve ever seen this man.

Eren seems shocked by the interruption. He puts the palette down and pulls out the earbuds, stopping his music as well. Then he turns to Willy and the rest of the students gathered around that look rather mournful at the red slash on the canvas.

“Is… something wrong? I thought this was free art time?” Eren asks, looking slightly alarmed at the attention he has garnered.

“Eren,” Willy says, his voice shaking with effort, “at the end of every painting you do, is your canvas a messy, dirty brown?”

“E-eh?! H-how did you know?” Eren exclaims. His eyes are wide as he looks at Willy in grudging admiration.

Willy lets out a soft sound that sounds suspiciously a lot like sobs. “Eren, you… you are what we call a process artist. That means you don’t care about the end product, just the journey to get there. The best way to showcase your talent is not to show the world the canvas once you’re done, but to videotape your painting process.”

“That sounds like a pain,” Eren admits.

Yeah, those are most definitely sobbing sounds that Willy is making. 

“Starting tomorrow, I’ll have a video camera set up for you. So let’s just… leave this piece as is here.”

It seems like Eren understands that something is off about Willy, because he reluctantly agrees. 

“Then I… uh… I guess I’ll leave for today.”

Eren looks confused at why the people staring at his canvas look so saddened. He shakes his head and glances towards the door and spots Porco and Marcel. His eyes light up, and he beams at them. 

“I’ll be right over after cleaning up!”

“Take your time,” Marcel yells back.

“I think it’s a waste,” Porco says. He begins to put his Shojo Beat back in his bag, probably so that Eren doesn’t see it. Marcel wonders if he should let his brother know that Eren already knows about that and the pornos?

“What is?”

Porco makes a vague motion towards the canvas. “The red slash. Why put that there? The painting looked fine without it.”

Marcel’s knee-jerk reaction is to agree. He doesn’t think that Eren should have done that either. But in the same breath, he’s curious. What was Eren going to put there? What did he want to depict with that bright red?

“Hm? A bomb, probably?” Eren answers them when they ask as they leave the art room together.

“A… a bomb?” Marcel stammers. Because what the hell, Eren?

Eren nods. “Something big that destroys the entire place with a… _boom!”_

Both Marcel and Porco stare at Eren dumbfounded. Eren blushes at their combined stare.

“S-shut up.”

“We didn’t say anything,” Porco points out.

Eren’s blush darkens. “Shut up!”

“Why did you want to destroy it?” Marcel asks.

The only answer he receives is an uncomfortable shrug. When Marcel pushes for more information, Eren just gets annoyed.

“I don’t know, alright? It just looked like something I’m supposed to destroy. Like I had no choice but to do this.”

“Now that I know of your violent tendency, I’m really glad you’re not a Warrior,” Porco says.

Eren scowls. “What does that even mean?”

“If you’re a Warrior, you have access to the shooting range.”

Marcel really doesn’t think they should mention the shooting range to someone who just admitted that they felt like bombing an entire stage and stands filled with people. That just… seem like they’re inviting trouble.

“There’s a shooting range here?” Eren asks. 

He sounds incredulous, and that makes Marcel curious. Is that not the norm at normal schools? Is this another one of the privileges they get because they’re a private school?

“Yeah. It’s a decently sized place. Bertolt’s usually there when he’s not in classes,” Porco informs Eren.

“He really likes weapons, huh?”

“Well, you wanted to bomb-”

“It’s just a picture!”

Technically speaking, they’re not allowed to bring someone who isn’t a Warrior to the shooting range. But Bertolt isn’t the type to say anything about it. And as long as they don’t get caught by the teacher on duty, it should be simple enough to sneak Eren in. 

“Do you want to go?” Marcel asks.

“Isn’t it only for the Warriors?” Eren asks.

Marcel grins. “Think of it as a thank you for lunch.”

He wonders what that expression on Eren’s face means. But it seems curiosity at wanting to see the shooting range must have won, because Eren begins to grin.

“Alright. Let’s go!”

 

*

 

The best part of being a Warrior is, without a doubt, the shooting range.

At least, it is for Bertolt.

He’s pretty sure the others would disagree and say something else that they like about being a Warrior. But he thinks that this large place for the handful of Warriors in each year is a meditative respite from the never-ending stress that being a Warrior puts you under.

Today’s instructor on duty is Zeke, but due to a phone call, he left Bertolt alone in the range. From the panicked expression on Zeke’s face, Bertolt figures it’s some kind of an emergency. He thinks Pieck once mentioned in passing that Zeke’s grandparents were sickly. Maybe it has something to do with that.

_ “All I can do now…” _

Bertolt starts at the vicious green eyes that flashes in his mind. His shot goes way off-course, ruining his score.

He should stop before those eyes start haunting him full force. The last thing he wants is an accident to occur because he keeps seeing those eyes like last time. Being banned from the shooting range for a month was one of the worst thing that happened to him.

With a soft sigh, he takes a step away from his lane and-

Meets eyes with those damned green eyes.

_ “… the most painful death possible.” _

He imagines that the rifle he dropped made a loud clatter. But he can’t hear it through his earmuffs. It’s possible the pounding in his head is actually the pounding of his heart. He can’t tell. His hands feel clammy. His legs feel weak. His breathing feels short. Is he choking? He can’t breathe. He-

Something gently touches his shoulder.

He’s much too aware of the too green of eyes looking up at him.

It takes him a second to realize that the owner of the green eyes are making hand gestures of breathing in and out. Actually, from the way the owner of the green eyes are making dramatic breathing motions, it’s possible they want Bertolt to match theirs.

_ “Hey, can you hear me? I want you to match my breathing. Okay?” _

Why is he helping Bertolt again?

It makes no sense.

With the same green eyes he used to curse Bertolt and promise a painful death, he’s reaching out so kindly. Bertolt doesn’t know how to handle this gentleness. 

When he first brought up those eyes and the voice promising him a painful death to his parents, they chalked it up to a scary movie he must have seen and warned him sternly to take better notice of the age restrictions on the media he consumes. And when he finally trusted his instructors enough to talk to them about it, they just laughed it off like it’s nothing important. 

He’s never been able to quite trust anyone else to mention it.

And everyone’s chalked up his panic attacks as something that Bertolt “does.” A personality quirk, almost. Except that it gets in the way, so perhaps it’s better viewed as a “weakness” of his.

A weakness of a flawed Warrior.

They were all shocked when Reiner was chosen as a Warrior instead of Porco this year. But the true surprise was that Bertolt still managed to stay at the top. They should have just dropped him and kept Porco. He doesn’t understand this decision. 

Everyone knows that he’s the flawed Warrior. 

Everyone knows that he’s weak. He’s broken. He might be able to keep up academically, but he can’t do anything else. And what good is academic excellence if a panic attack stops him from performing?

Hey, what’s the point of letting him live like this?

Just do what you promised.

Eren, you said you'd let him rest, right? Even if it's a painful death, death is still rest from this hellhole that Bertolt feels like he's trapped him. So please.

Just-

Bertolt reaches up and pulls his earmuff down. No one was in the shooting range except for himself, so there’s no danger of damaging his hearing by someone else firing. 

Eren smiles kindly. “Feeling better?”

“Why are you helping me?!” he snaps. “Stop it! I can’t stand this!”

Bertolt doesn’t want to see it. Those kind green eyes replacing the viciousness and bite they held before. He can’t stand this. He can’t.

Please, he’d much rather be punished for…

For?

Eren doesn’t say anything.

He just grabs the front of Bertolt’s shirt and yanks him down until Bertolt’s head is at Eren’s eye level. Then Eren gently hugs Bertolt’s head, leaning it down against his own shoulder. It’s uncomfortable as hell. Bertolt’s too tall. Eren’s too short. 

But it’s the first time someone comforting him didn’t feel insincere. It’s the first time he feels like it’s okay.

That he’s already been forgiven.

Forgiven for what?

Bertolt doesn’t know. 

But he finds himself clutching tightly to the smaller boy while crying his heart out for the first time.

 

*

 

Marcel and Porco hide in the next lane over while Bertolt cries because they have no idea what to do. The only expressions Bertolt normally expresses are anxiety and panic. This whole anger and tear business is something that they have no experience in. 

But someone who has never met Bertolt before yesterday seems just fine holding him.

It’s so mysterious. 

They have known each other since kindergarten when they started attending Marley Private Institute for the Gifted. They know of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They know what ticks each other off and what is absolutely forbidden to say. They know each other’s likes and dislikes and goals for the future. That’s just what happens when you’ve known each other for that long. You end up knowing everything about each other. 

Or at least they should know everything.

But today at lunch, too.

The typical thing to do when someone doesn’t grab lunch is to ignore them. Especially as Warriors, they are more than capable enough to get their own food. Everyone knows that.

Everyone should know that.

But Eren he…

Marcel still can’t wrap his mind around it.

It didn’t seem like Eren grabbed Marcel a lunch as a show of superiority. From the gentle way Eren comforts Bertolt, Marcel can’t imagine Eren doing that. So why did Eren grab lunch for Marcel?

He can get it himself.

Likewise, Bertolt can get over his panic attack by himself. 

They’re Warriors. It’s expected of them.

But Eren, he…

He reaches out to them.

It makes no sense.

Marcel peeks over the lane dividers to see that Bertolt and Eren are sitting on the ground now. Bertolt’s face is buried in Eren’s shirt. Eren doesn’t seem to be mocking Bertolt for this weakness, either. He’s just calmly running his fingers through Bertolt’s hair. 

It makes no sense.

 

*

 

“You still want to shoot a bit?” Porco asks Eren after waiting for who knows how long.

Bertolt looks like he’s fallen asleep against Eren like that. They’ll probably have to move him out of the shooting range first. It’ll be a bad way to wake him after his panic attack.

“Is it okay?” Eren asks with sparkles in his eyes.

“Let’s get Bertolt out of here first,” Marcel suggests with a strained smile.

When the three move to Bertolt, the guy wakes up on his own. He rubs his eyes and looks at them curiously before it must have sunk in. His eyes go wide and he quickly scrambles away from Eren.

“S-s-s-sorry!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Eren tells him with a chuckle. “Hey, I was going to shoot for a bit. Do you want to stay to watch?”

Porco tilts his head. There’s something about this that’s wrong. Why does Bertolt and Eren talking look so…

Oh.

Bertolt is meeting Eren’s eyes.

“I… I want to stay,” Bertolt says.

Eren smiles. When he turns to Porco and Marcel, the smile transforms into an excited grin.

“Let’s go!”

 

*

 

“Ehhhh? Really?” Pieck asks them when they’re all sitting together for dinner.

“It wasn’t that good,” Eren laughs, smacking Porco’s arm lightly. “You’re giving her unrealistic expectations of me.”

Porco shakes his head. “No, no. There’s no way that could have been your first time with a rifle! You hit the center more times than not!”

“What can I say? I’m a master at shooting games at arcades.” Eren makes shooting motions with his finger guns.

There’s a small pause as everyone stares at Eren as if he’s said something strange. Is it insensitive to shoot someone with finger guns? Is that a taboo here?

“… There are still arcades?” Annie asks.

“H-huh?! W-what’s with that question? Of course, there are arcades! Where else would kids go to blow off their hard earned allowances during school hours?”

“No, no, what you just said sounds worrying, too,” Marcel says.

Eren looks around at the group of teenagers sitting at this table. “Have none of you guys ever gone to an arcade?”

“I’ve seen them in manga and books,” Porco admits, looking uncomfortable.

“Movies,” Bertolt adds.

The others nod in agreement.

Eren can’t imagine what that’s like. Is it because these guys grew up at this dorm school? Most of what you need seem to be offered here anyways. So none of them have ever thought that they need to go outside?

That, too, seems sad.

But in the end, it’s none of his business.

Eren shakes his head. “Well, I’m sure it’ll be a cool experience if you guys ever do get to go.”

He decides to leave it there.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s technically not Monday anymore.
> 
> Porco glances at the clock on his phone. 1:59 am.
> 
> His lips twitch into a grin. This is what Eren gets for punching him this morning. This morning? Last morning? Whatever.
> 
> He approaches Eren’s bed with his bucket of ice. Marcel nods at him in the dark, holding the air horn in the air to be pressed when it's time. Reiner is by the light switch. The minute he hears Marcel’s air horn, he’s supposed to flip the light on and off as quickly as possible.
> 
> 2:00 am.
> 
> The world descends into chaos at their welcome to the dorms prank.
> 
> Eren can pretend to be mad all he wants, but Porco sees that soft grin on his face when he thinks no one is looking.
> 
> Ladies and gents and everyone in between, they have another comrades in arms.
> 
> This year is most definitely going to be awesome.


	4. Day 3 - Tuesday

Pieck’s message arrives twenty minutes before Marcel’s alarm rings for the morning.

How evil, he thinks as he tiredly checks the message. She knows he won’t ignore the message due to curiosity. And if it’s so close to when his alarm would ring, he won’t be able to go back to sleep after looking at the message.

“Arcade today,” it reads. 

Had it been anyone else, Marcel would have ignored it and pretended that he didn’t understand. He really doesn’t want to use his brain so early in the morning.

But the word “Arcade” catches his attention.

_ “Of course, there are arcades! Where else would kids go to blow off their hard earned allowances during school hours?” _

So Eren’s words bothered Pieck as much as it did Marcel. But does this mean that she plans on skipping class? Since they had a test yesterday, today’s class should be going over the answers. So he supposes it should be fine to skip it. He just needs to make sure that at least one of them stays behind to take notes for everyone, just in case. 

But the thing that bothers him is that they’ve never skipped class before.

Do… they know how to skip class? Sure, the theory of skipping class makes sense. But it’s never appealed to Marcel before. What’s the point? Classes are here to make sure they learn and get better. On top of that, the tuition here is ridiculous, why the hell would he waste his family’s money like that? The idea of skipping class is ridiculous and highly impractical in the long run, especially at a private institution. 

He supposes debating this alone in bed isn’t going to help anyone.

With a small stretch, he turns off his alarm preemptively and decides to get ready for the day. He’ll go along with this “Arcade” plan to see how far they get. At the very least, it’ll be interesting. He can think of it as an experiment, almost. How well can the Warriors fit in with the normal society as they are now? What is an "Arcade" like? 

As for the person to stay behind to take notes…

Marcel glances over at Reiner’s sleeping form. It seems that Pieck’s message didn’t wake him. 

Well, it’s Reiner’s own fault for being such a heavy sleeper. With a grin on his face, Marcel turns off all 15 of Reiner’s alarm clocks.

 

*

 

“You uh… what?” Eren asks intelligently at Pieck’s bright grin.

“Arcade. Let’s go,” Pieck repeats for him. Slower this time, mercifully.

Although last night’s prank has lasted barely few minutes, it was more than enough to keep Eren awake for the rest of the night. The combination of flashing lights, ice cubes, and air horn terrified him so badly that any time he closed his eyes, he experienced it all over again.

He’s feeling terribly tired. 

“Right now…?” Eren asks.

There’s no way, right? Typically, people skip after lunch. He doesn’t think it’s a rule or anything, but the people at the Garrison Arcade are bound to be hungover if they go this early in the morning. At least by lunch time, those guys should have dealt with their hangovers enough to not immediately kick out kids who’re clearly skipping.

“Why not?” Pieck demands.

And now that Eren is paying attention, he realizes something rather important.

Everyone’s looking at him expectantly like they’re waiting for him to take responsibility. Everyone, that is, except Reiner. But that’s because Reiner isn’t here. Eren tries to ask about that, but everyone takes that to mean he’s trying to change the topic and forces it back to the arcade. Eren can’t help but to wonder if these guys maybe don’t like Reiner all that much.

“You said so yourself. It’ll be a cool experience if we get to go,” Porco reminds him. “So let’s go.”

“Does… it have to be me? Or now? D-don’t we have classes?”

“We can s-skip,” Annie says unconvincingly.

From the slightly nervous but determined looks in their eyes, it becomes much too clear that they’ve never skipped a class before. But they want to skip anyways because…? Because why?

For arcade games? It might not even be their scene. Wouldn’t they be disappointed when they skip classes, only to find that they don’t find the arcade all that interesting or fun?

“Do you guys know how to get out of the school?” Eren tries.

There are relatively high walls around the school. Eren knows because he tried to climb over them in order to talk to Zeke few weeks before all of this (This, by the way, was Plan A21). Mikasa was able to get the hang of it with the usage of a grappling hook they borrowed from Eld. But then the security guards came after them and they ended up running for their lives. Luckily, they remembered to return the grappling hook so Eld (and therefore Levi) never found out. But the idea that the security guard might drag them to his mom…

Marcel nods. “There’s an out of sight area near the back of the school walls where one of the trees grew too tall and too close. We can use that tree to climb over the walls easily. It’s just… we never had a reason to.”

But how will they come back? 

All of them are looking at him with such excited eyes. They’re not thinking logically about this, Eren thinks in despair. If they really do decide to go through with this, then Eren will have to be the Armin of the group. 

But can he really plan like Armin can?

More and more, he likes this plan less and less.

“W-will you take us?” Bertolt asks softly.

Their pleading eyes are locked onto him.

It’ll be easy to say no. It’ll be easy to crush their hopes with reason and logic. Eren usually doesn’t play this role, but he’s certain that since these guys are all good kids, all he has to do is pretend to be Jean and they’ll fold. There’s a reason why these guys haven’t skipped before. All Eren has to do is remind them of that and…

The first time he skipped class was because Mina’s dog disappeared. The entire first grade class got together and decided to help her find her dog by skipping class. And after about two hours of this, the teacher (after meeting them at the police station and apologizing to all their parents) explained to them about death and how Mina’s dog didn’t disappear but went to heaven. 

Can Eren really rob these guys of the magic of skipping class for the sake of a greater good?

“Okay. Here’s the plan. In twenty minutes, meet by that tree in the back of the school. Bring bed sheets and money. Make sure you’re not dressed in anything that identifies you or this school.”

“What? Can they arrest us if it identifies us?” Porco asks.

Eren nods. “Yeah.”

Good. They’re all looking at him seriously. To be honest, Eren doubts that Detective Erwin would bother with anything more than a stern warning. But it’s good to have them be focused.

“Then I’ll see you soon.”

 

*

 

This is starting to weird Porco out.

Marcel is their leader. It’s something that they’ve always fallen into. When things get hard or when things get dire, Marcel is always the one who can logically point out what to do next. Even if someone else takes the initiative, they always fall back to Marcel and his plans. 

That’s just how they’ve worked as Warriors (and yes, Porco isn’t a Warrior right now. But he’s been a Warrior far longer than Reiner, alright?).

But Eren looks like he’s completely content to take the lead. In fact, the way he casually gives them directions seems to scream that he’s someone who has done something like this many times before.

“Yup, just like that. And look. The knot doesn’t come undone even if you tug on it. That’s ideal for us,” Eren explains to Annie, who nods seriously.

“Is this for when we come back?” Marcel asks, tying the bed sheets as Eren asked.

“Exactly. The first person going over will tie one of the ends to this tree. The other end, I’ll tie with this green thread. We’ll hide this makeshift rope along the branches and on top of the wall with this thread hanging out on the other side. It should be long enough that Bertolt should be able to grab it if he jumped.”

Bertolt flinches at the sound of his name. “M-me?”

“You’re very important to coming back, so don’t get lost, okay?” Eren tells him.

Oh look. Bertolt looks like he’s having a panic attack at having such importance placed on his shoulders. Are they really okay with letting Eren make all these plans for them? Well, it looks like Eren’s comforting Bertolt. But if things get down to it, Bertolt’s a liability and Eren doesn’t know enough about them and their abilities to lead them.

It makes more sense for Marcel to take the command. He knows their strengths and weaknesses as well as the weight of the burdens he puts on their shoulders. He will be able to accurately determine who can do what without faltering in the last second or having a panic attack. 

But Marcel has this fascinated look on his face as he listens to Eren’s orders. 

And now that Porco thinks about it, have they ever taken the role of leader away from Marcel before? Instinctively and because prior experience has told them that Marcel makes the best leader, they have all turned to him to be their leader. Has Marcel ever been anything but? Porco honestly can’t recall a single instance when they didn’t rely on Marcel.

“Alright. Let’s climb over,” Eren says.

The first to make it to the top of the wall is Marcel. He stays there to help everyone go from the tree branch to the top of the wall and then slide down to the other side using the rope. The last to go is Eren, who makes sure that everything is hidden just right so that they’re not discovered immediately. 

“Can you see the bed sheet from there?” Eren asks from top of the wall.

“We can’t see it,” Pieck confirms.

Marcel, who got off the wall when Eren told him to, moves ways down the street to make sure that things are clear from there, too. 

Eren nods. He positions the green thread so it looks like it’s one of the plant vines.

“Bertolt, can you reach this?” Eren asks.

Bertolt surprises Porco (surprises all of them, really) by jumping up easily and grabbing it. He gives it a little tug, pulling the rope to their side. Eren grins and resets the set up.

“Alright. Now that we have a way back, let’s go and have fun!”

Without any regard for his own health and what it means to do this, Eren casually leaps from the wall.

Marcel’s too far away to be of any use. Porco runs at the same time Annie and Pieck does. This stupid dumbass, Porco curses in his head. Learn the limits of a human’s body! Sure, the wall doesn’t look that high (and it really is nothing for Warriors), but if you just jump like that without any preparation or warm up, the body will break (Even Marcel came down slowly without rushing to death like this)!

They all collides with Bertolt’s solid stance as he catches Eren with a wide-eyed look of pure terror. 

“Oh,” Eren says, surprised. “You didn’t have to catch me. But thanks!”

And it’s only because Porco’s now on the ground after running into Bertolt that he sees it. The look on Marcel’s face of curious wonder. 

That’s what it is. 

Marcel’s experimenting, isn’t he? He relinquished his control over to Eren to… to test what? To see whether or not Eren will be a good fit with the Warriors? To see if it’ll be worth to invest in Eren? What? What’s the big picture, Marcel? What are you planning? Because if this ends up hurting Eren, then… Then who is Porco supposed to side with? His brother who hurt someone for the sake of an experiment? Or the new friend he has made who struggles with the simplest of all common sense?

The wonder on Marcel’s face melts into a soft smile that Porco doesn’t know how to place. Exasperation, maybe? But that’s not it at all. This smile is a little more… More…?

Hey Marcel, just how do you feel about Eren? 

“It’s going to be a bit of a walk,” Eren warns them as they gather to go. 

“We’re used to long walks,” Pieck tells him proudly.

“Are you going to be okay?” Annie asks, staring dubiously at the wall and then back at Eren.

Eren grins. “Of course. Then let’s be off!”

 

*

 

The Garrison Arcade is about forty minutes away from their school on foot, but that’s with extra time to duck into shops and alleyways to dodge any officers. Eren seems quite serious when he said that they need to keep their profile lowkey. Annie is honestly impressed with how naturally Eren hides from view.

“Do you do things like this often?” When Pieck asked, Eren just laughed nervously before redirecting the conversation.

There’s definitely more to this than Eren lets on, but right now, they’re at the arcade so Annie is willing to let this pass.

The place looks like they’re not open. The lights are not on, and there’s no sign of life inside. But Eren doesn’t seem to care about that. He just walks up to the door and knocks. He waits a second before pulling the door open and walking in. The rest of them slowly follow after him, uncertain if this is really the right thing to do.

“Those idiots forgot to lock up,” Eren mumbles. Then louder, he yells out, “Hey! Anyone here? Mr. Hannes? You on duty today?”

Annie glances around the place. Perhaps because everything is turned off in the dark room, it really looks like an abandoned place. She glances at the others, who look just as worried as she feels. Perhaps this arcade idea was a bad plan? Should they return back to the school?

A low groan catches all of their attention. 

“Mr. Hannes! Alright, we’re in luck!”

With that, Eren rushes towards the counter, where a tired looking man peers out.

“We’re not open,” the man groans, holding his head. “Be quiet and go away.”

“Mr. Hannes! I want to play!” Eren says, keeping his voice at a loud volume that’s not quite yelling. He grins widely at the man. “You shouldn’t have left the doors unlocked if you didn’t want customers.”

“We’re not open! For crisis’ sake, Eren! Have mercy on this old man!”

Eren begins to tap his hand against the counter rhythmically. “Hm? What’s that, Mr. Hannes? You want me to tell mom you’ve been using the arcade as your home again? When was the last time you took a shower, anyways? You reek.”

“You monster! Mikasa, Armin, stop…” 

It’s only at this juncture that this Mr. Hannes realizes who else is in the building. He slowly looks at each of the Warriors (and Porco) before his eyes land back on Eren, who is still tapping his hand against the counter.

“Where are Mikasa and Armin?” Mr. Hannes whispers, his voice low. “Who are these kids? Eren, I swear to god, if this ends up with the police, the Ackerman family, and your mom breathing down my neck, Pixis is going to fire me! Do you understand? You won’t be able to use the Arcade freely!”

Is no one else alarmed by what this guy just said? Because that sounds a lot like Eren only cares about this guy in conjunction with the arcade. Isn’t it worrisome to put their trust in someone like that?

“Don’t be a baby! I can’t say much about my mom, but the police and the Ackerman won’t touch you for this. These kids are from Marley Private Institute for the Gifted. And get this, Mr. Hannes, they’re never been to an arcade!” Eren says, leaning in to emphasize his point.

At the very least, he stopped tapping his hand on the counter.

Annie doesn’t think that what Eren said is all that convincing, but apparently that little story is enough to move Mr. Hannes to tears (he’s probably still drunk). 

“You poor kids! You’ve never been to an arcade?” he exclaims. Then he holds his head, probably because of the sudden loud noise of his own making.

“Never,” Marcel tells him with an innocent smile.

They all follow Marcel’s example to look as innocent as possible.

Mr. Hannes nods seriously. “Alright. I’ll make an exception just for today. I’ll open early and let you kids experience firsthand the wonders of the arcade. And in return… Eren, the payment?”

Annie reaches for her wallet at the same time everyone else does, but Eren shakes his head at them. He grins and tells them, “You guys brought money to get coins to play the games. The payment he’s talking about is different.”

With that, Eren pulls out a single piece of paper and puts it down on the counter. Annie curiously peers at it. 

It’s a “buy one, get one free” coupon for a “Springer Brewery.” 

Annie honestly doesn’t know what to make of this.

“Ohhh! The legendary ‘buy one, get one’ coupon! With this, I’ll be able to convince Pixis to finally give me a pay raise. Alright, Eren. I’ll get the light switch. You get these kids situated.”

Eren chuckles, looking quite like a villain in those manga that Porco likes to read. But when he turns to face the rest of them, his smile is much more natural and sweet. Annie wonders if it’s okay to feel touched at this sweetness.

“Ready to play?”

 

*

 

Eren isn’t shocked at all that the first game Porco chooses is a button masher. And because he is really that petty and wants just a twinge of revenge for the prank last night, he volunteers to be Porco’s opponent.

In the first round, Eren takes the time to teach Porco the controls and special moves of the chosen character. The second round is a test drive. Eren fights Porco back just enough to let Porco get a feel for the character. 

To be honest, Eren’s a bit impressed with Porco’s ability to pick up the controls this quickly. Even Eren took a couple days before he started to get the controls of this game. But Porco’s already figured out even some of the more difficult move combinations. Is this what they meant by “Gifted” students at that fancy private school? 

And in the third round, Eren destroys Porco with glee. 

Porco’s level is increasing at an alarming pace, but it’s not at Eren’s level yet. Couple more rounds of this, though, Eren feels Porco might end up eclipsing him. What a terrifying guy. Just a little, Eren wants to see Porco face off against Connie, who is a master at this game.

“W-w-what the hell?!” Porco exclaims as he stares at the game over screen. “There’s no way that you could’ve actually hit those buttons that fast! You had to have done something else!”

Eren laughs. “It’s called spending waaaaaay too much money on this game, Porco! You won’t be able to match it that easily!”

But he feels that Porco actually might be able to if he keeps improving at this rate.

“Just watch! C’mon, rematch!”

Annie and Pieck seem to have settled together on a racing game, both leisurely turning the wheels. Bertolt and Marcel look like they’re checking out one of the shooters. Hannes is by their side, trying to look cool with the toy gun as he explains to them how this one works.

Are they having fun? He can’t tell. But Porco is roaring to go, glaring at Eren with eyes full of determination. 

It should be fine to beat Porco up just a little bit longer, right?

“Alright, if you insist!”

 

*

 

Pieck rescues Eren from Porco after what looks to be one round too much. Porco looks like he’s going to lose his mind for losing to Eren yet again, while Eren looks like he’s starting to panic slightly (He’s probably hitting that point where Porco has all but caught up with him in terms of skills. Heh. That’s what you get for looking down on Warriors, Eren!). So it’s a double save, really. Stop glaring at her, Porco!

Besides, she didn’t want to come to the arcade just for those two to stay at one game!

No way! If you’re at the arcade, then you just have to try…

“DDR? Mikasa’s better at this than me,” Eren tells her.

But he dutifully gets on the board just as Pieck has hoped he would. Then she pushes Annie up.

“I’ve never done this before, you know?” she complains. But she prepares herself as one would for battle.

Porco dares to give Pieck a judging look.

“You just wanted to see Eren get his ass handed to him, didn’t you?” he accuses.

“I don’t know what you mean, Pock! Aren’t you the same as me?”

“Don’t call me that! And don’t put me on the same level as you. I’m different from you bloodsucking sadist.”

Eren lets Annie chose the first song. They use it as a way to get used to the sensitivity of the board. By the time they finish that round, Marcel has joined the peanut gallery.

“Play that song next!” he suggests.

“Eh? Wouldn’t you rather play it instead?” Eren asks them.

“We’ll play after you guys!” Pieck lies.

For the song that Marcel suggested, Annie amps up the difficulty. Eren glances at her screen worriedly.

“Are you sure? They mean it when they say that it’s hard.”

Annie smirks. “Keep up.”

The outcome is exactly as Pieck suspected. She can’t hold back the laughter from bubbling out at the look of utter defeat on Eren’s face.

“Your personality’s so nasty,” Porco sighs, shaking his head. But there’s a satisfied grin on his face, so Pieck doesn’t know who he’s trying to fool.

“But you know, I’d love to see you go against Mikasa one day,” Eren tells Annie while offering to shake her hand.

Annie accepts. “You mentioned that name before.”

“She’s my childhood friend. She’s practically my sister, with how much she comes over. She and Armin are my closest friends.”

“Shall we take a bit of a break for snacks?” Marcel suggests, looking far too interested in Eren’s story.

Then again, it's not like Pieck doesn't want to know. Things feel livelier with Eren around. Like a burst of air in a stale attic. Or the fall of a flower petal to the bottom of a dark well. Whether for good or for bad, he's bringing some kind of a change.

So quickly before the change becomes permanent, she wants to judge who this Eren is. If he wishes misfortune on them, then she will be the one to get rid of him.

Quickly before they all get attached.

 

*

 

There’s a small food court area in one corner of the arcade. Hannes complains loudly about having to cook, but he does it anyways like the soft guy he is. Eren doesn’t have to slide over another coupon for it, either. It seems Hannes, as always, took a liking to these kids.

Even if Eren doesn’t bring them next time, Hannes should welcome them with a bit of minor complaints.

“So how often do you come to the arcade?” Porco demands with a serious expression.

Eren shrugs. “Not too much. Usually after a test or a huge project is due. To blow off steam, you know?”

Marcel’s eyebrows shoot up in alarm. Actually, all of these guys are looking at Eren with shock and disbelief like he just admitted to liking Jean or something. Not that they know who Jean is, by the way. But if they did, that’s what these expressions on their faces would seem like.

“W-what?”

“That often? Isn’t that a lot of skipped classes?” Pieck asks, looking anxious.

Is test seasons that often? It’s only like two a year, isn’t it? The midterm and the final? Just how many tests do these guys take? As expected of private school kids. They really don't mess around.

Eren blinks. “Ah, we don’t always skip class. We come during the weekends, too. We only skip classes to come here when we want the whole place to ourselves, you know? I’m not that bad of a delinquent!”

That seems to relax them somewhat, but not completely. Eren distracts himself by looking around for Bertolt, who hasn’t joined them.

“Oh, I’ll go ask if he wants to eat with us.”

Before they can stop him, he quickly rushes over. Bertolt is standing next to the claw machine, seemingly calculating something.

“Don’t bother with those. They’re rigged to steal your money.”

Bertolt glances at him and quickly lowers his gaze. “I-I see…” 

He takes a step away from the machine, looking way more dejected than Eren expected. Right. He keeps forgetting that he needs to treat Bertolt gently. At least he didn’t start up another panic attack, but this doesn’t look too good either.

“But one try shouldn’t hurt,” Eren says.

Bertolt’s head snaps up, staring at Eren in disbelief. “R-really?”

“Yeah, yeah! C’mon! Let’s see you go at it, Bertolt!” 

Eren puts the coin in the machine and takes a step back. He places two more coins by the control of the machine. It's probably not a gesture that Bertolt understands, though.

“I’ll forgive you up to three rounds,” Eren promises him, motioning at the coins. “So feel free to use this first one to get used to the controls.”

Bertolt stares at the lit up controls for a second longer before he nods seriously. Eren leans away to give Bertolt space to concentrate. As he does so, he notices a familiar face peering into the arcade. I-isn’t that…? 

“Ah…”

At the soft voice, Eren glances back at Bertolt.

It seems that Bertolt foolishly went for the largest doll in the claw machine. Damn. Eren was too distracted to warn him about that. Typically those large ones are buried under others, which makes it impossible to pick up, even if the claw grabs it. Predictably, the claw missed the large doll and came up with… a smaller one?

Huh?

“Okay,” Bertolt says, nodding. “I get how it works. Eren, which one do you like the best?”

“M-me? Uh… I… guess that one,” Eren says, pointing at a small rabbit that looks relatively easy to get. “The anxious look on its face reminds me of you."

But it seems that Bertolt stopped listening after Eren pointed the doll out. Because there's a glint in his eyes that seem much too serious for a simple game.

"Understood," Bertolt says like a soldier responding to a command.

Eren is about to tell him that he doesn't have to take this so seriously. But he doesn't get the chance. Because the doors of the arcade slams open and an obnoxious voice yells out.

"I knew it! It is you, Eren!"

It takes him a few seconds to place who they are. Right. There were a bunch of new preppy kids that Jean picked up in middle school, weren’t they? Let’s see… Their names are…?

“Ah… Mitch, Flow, and… you?” Eren guesses.

“Floch! My name is Floch Forster!” shouts the owner of the obnoxious voice.

Quickly behind him are a group of kids that all file into the Garrison Arcade, thinking that it’s open. Why Jean like to surround himself with so many weaklings, Eren never understood.

“Hitch! Hitch and Marlowe! How many times do I have to say it for you to get it?” one of the girls demands. 

“No, seriously, Eren. We’ve known you since middle school,” the guy with the bowl cut says.

Yeah, it’s no good. No matter how many times they introduce themselves, Eren can’t be bothered with their names. By that, he always pretends that he doesn’t know their names. It makes for a pretty fun gag that they don’t seem to appreciate. But Armin found it funny that one time, so Eren figures he doesn’t mind being an idiot.

“Maybe if you guys weren’t Jean’s lackeys, I’d be more inclined to remember your names,” Eren shrugs.

The kids sigh at him like he’s the disappointment. 

“There’s more to us than Jean, you know,” Hitch grumbles. “A-anyways, what’s up with the arcade being open? It’s not time yet! Not to mention the one playing inside is you, of all people!”

Eren pretends that he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. “Have you tried what normal people do and bribe the clerk?”

“No one can bribe Mr. Hannes. He’s one of the most outstanding members of society,” Marlowe insists.

Boy, is this guy far off the mark. What’s that like to believe in the good of all people he meets? Now that Eren thinks about it, didn’t Marlow also believe that Eren didn’t punch Jean until after Eren punched Marlowe for daring to think that Eren needed help? How did that guy end up becoming Jean’s lackey? Eren’s memory of that time is a bit fuzzy. It probably didn’t help that he was bleeding from his head wound after… Huh? What was it now?

“Well, since it’s already open and we’re all in here, we might as well as all have fun!” Hitch decides.

“No way. I bribed Mr. Hannes fair and square. You guys find a different hunting ground.” 

Floch scowls at him. “You’re always such a child. There’s more than enough games for-”

Whatever else he says is lost to Eren as something fuzzy touches his cheek. He flinches and turns, just as Bertolt pulls the bunny doll from the claw machine back. Bertolt offers him a sheepish grin.

“I got it,” he whispers, ducking his head slightly.

From the way he keeps glancing at Eren, it’s clear that he wants to be praised. What's with this overgrown dog? Can’t he read the mood? Why the hell would he interrupt like this when he suffers from panic attacks? Isn’t this exactly the opposite of what you’re supposed to do?

But in the same breath, Bertolt did it.

Just as he said he would, he got the bunny with the anxious expression on its face. Eren reaches out and touches the small doll that fits perfectly in Bertolt’s hand. The claw game that’s always been taboo because none of them could get anything out of it has finally been defeated! It is possible! Armin’s calculations are wrong!

“Dude, that’s so awesome!” Eren finds himself gushing. “How did you do it so easily? I’ve never been able to figure out those controls. So it just feels like I’m throwing my money away whenever I do it. But you got this! And the other one, too!”

Hitch grabs Eren’s shoulder suddenly, her face serious. “He did what? He got that out from that dreaded claw machine?”

Within seconds, Jean’s other lackeys gather around, exclaiming over how amazing Bertolt must be. Eren can see what’ll happen before it does. He quickly puts himself between Bertolt and the rest of them.

“If you want to admire it, you need to pay up first!”

“What the hell’s up with that?” Floch groans. “You stupid man-child! Grow up, already!”

“I’ll pay you!” Hitch yells out, surprising everyone.

Eren didn’t expect that. What’s he supposed to say to someone whose dad has always bought her everything she’s ever wanted? He shouldn't have used money in this case. Now he has to sell Bertolt! He glances to Bertolt in apology, but it doesn’t seem like the bigger boy isn’t too bothered. In fact, Bertolt is looking to him curiously like he himself doesn’t realize anything is wrong.

“I’ll pay you, so can you please get me a doll from the machine, too? I’ve told Marlowe to get one for me, but he always says that it’s a waste of money! I have more than enough money for it. But I have zero talent!” Hitch begs.

Bertolt continues to stare at Eren. Because of that, everyone is now staring at Eren. Hitch seems to have realized something, because she tilts her head to the side as she glares at Eren. Ah, what a pain.

“With great power comes great responsibility,” Eren tells Bertolt seriously. “You have to decide for yourself if you want to use your powers for good or for this witch named Pitch.”

“Hitch! My name is Hitch!”

But Bertolt must have gotten what he wanted, because he nods seriously. Then he takes a step behind Eren as if to hide his huge body behind Eren’s.

“I won’t play for you,” he tells Hitch while cowering behind Eren.

This, of course, means war.

Hitch grabs Eren by the front of his shirt and shakes him. “You shithead! You fuckface! I’ll make you pay for this! Come! Let’s play a round!”

“… Is there a problem here?” Marcel asks. 

Behind him, the other Warriors (and Porco) looks worriedly at the scene. There’s a glint in Marcel’s eyes that makes Eren a little worried. This isn’t a battle. Can people please stop looking so serious? This is, at best, just a friendly bout between acquaintances that are way too aggressive to one another. But they’re not actually mad at each other. If they were, Eren would've already drawn blood.

There’s a small pause as Hitch’s eyes glance at the gathered people. Then she must have arrived on the wrong conclusion, because she grins.

“Ohhhhh! I get it. I thought Jean was acting weird. That’s what’s happening,” she chuckles darkly before thrusting her forefinger at Eren’s nose. “My group challenges you and your group to six arcade games! If we win, the big guy gets me a doll from the claw machine. If you win… uh…”

“You pay for lunch,” Eren decides on the spot.

She nods. “Pfft. Just lunch? That’s easy.”

Does she not realize that she’s staking this game for a doll from the claw machine? Eren probably shouldn’t say such a thing to someone who’s about to buy them lunch, huh?

“Alright, you’re on!”

 

*

 

Porco doesn’t really get the point of this, but Marcel has a serious look on his face. And if Marcel’s on board, it’s hard for the rest of them to refuse. He wonders if Eren even realizes just how lucky he is that Marcel’s on his side. 

The first round is between this “Floch” guy whose head looks like a bird has created a nest on top of it and Eren. They face each other in front of the shooting game. From what Porco understands, it seems to be some kind of an alien invasion story that’s propelled by the two players. Depending on how well the two work together, they advance further in the plot without using more coins. But while working together, you still have to keep track of how many aliens you kill, because the kill count determines the victor.

It sounds like a scam, to be honest. 

If you wanted to have a co-op game, that’s what it should have been. What’s with this snide victors and losers that’s snuck in there? It loses the focus of the whole “partnering up” thing.

His complaints, unfortunately, falls on deaf ears as the game starts up.

“Wow… they’re uh… really bad at this game, huh?”

“Are you stupid?! Go after the aliens from that side! That’s your side!” Eren yells at Floch as he makes vague motions to the screen with his gun.

“Stop waving your gun and shoot!” Floch yells back. 

“Isn’t shooting games supposed to be Eren’s specialty…?” Porco wonders.

“Huh? No. Eren can’t play shooting games worth shit,” Marlowe tells him. “If you want a shooter, bring Sasha. She can go head-to-head with Mikasa until she gets hungry.”

Then what was with Eren in the shooting range? Because that was a familiarity with the rifle that can’t be natural to someone who’s never been to a shooting range before. Porco doesn’t think Eren lied to them about never having been to a shooting range before. Then is this what people call natural talent?

Marcel sighs. “This is too painful to watch.”

And before anyone can stop him, Marcel casually walks up behind Eren and hugs him from the back. Porco half-expected Eren to bash his elbow into Marcel’s face, but it seems Eren only beats people up when he’s half-asleep. Marcel grabs Eren’s gun with one hand and helps direct it at the screen for Eren to shoot.

With just five shots, the five aliens that have appeared on the screen have been killed. Any more aliens that appear are killed almost immediately as Marcel directs Eren’s gun.

“W-w-wait, how’d you know they’d appear there?” Floch asks in disbelief.

“Hm? I played it for a bit before you guys came,” Marcel explains with a chuckle. “It seems that they appear in the same pattern every time. It makes them predictable.”

That’s Marcel for you. He already figured out the AI’s attack spawning pattern, huh?

As if understanding that, Eren relinquishes the gun and the space to Marcel and comes to stand by Porco’s side. Porco thought that Eren would be bitter. That he’d feel upset for having his spot taken, but Eren seems to cheer for Marcel with sincerity.

“Aren’t you bothered? Marcel just stole your spot,” Porco tells him.

Eren laughs. “Dude, free lunch rides on winning. Who cares about who plays?”

Porco can’t quite figure out this guy’s priority. “You’re really not bothered at all?”

“Eh. Mikasa shows me off all the time. I know I’m not that good when it comes to games. But the fun of these arcade games is facing against an opponent while having a crowd cheer for you.”

At the confused look on Porco’s face, Eren chuckles and squeezes his shoulder. The grin on Eren’s face look a bit sleazy as he leans in.

“When we’re doing the button mashing fighting game, you’ll bring us victory, right, Pock?”

“D-d-don’t call me that! A-and why would I do that?”

Eren looks disappointed. “Aw, you don’t want to? Oh well. I guess I’ll ask Pieck if she want-”

“I-I mean, I’ll do it. Pieck’s reactions aren’t as fast as me. She’s much better suited for puzzle games. Besides, how can I say no when you’re asking me so sweetly?”

The smile on Eren’s face is sincere. No, not just sincere, but also grateful. It’s a soft look that completely catches Porco off-guard. Then the smile transforms into a more excited grin as Eren smacks Porco’s back.

“You’re the best, Porco! I’ll be relying on you!”

Eren’s attention returns to the game, cheering loudly for Marcel. The conversation is clearly over, but Porco can’t get that smile out of his head. Why does he feel so light-headed? Why does he feel like he's about to fall over with giddiness? 

It takes Porco a second to realize that he’s been manipulated into playing along. Marlowe and few of the other kids that haven’t introduced themselves shake their heads at Porco as if pitying him. They even dare to pat him on the shoulder.

“You too, huh?” they say.

Porco feels his face flush. “S-shut up! He relies on me!”

There’s a small pause before Marlowe smiles softly. It’s a little gentler than the pitying looks on the others’ faces. That’s the only reason why Porco allows it.

“Yeah, he really does.”

Porco feels himself beaming. That’s right. Eren relies on him. On him and the rest of the Warriors to win.

How can he not rise up to meet the challenge?

 

*

 

Marcel wipes the floor with Floch without breaking a sweat. Porco destroys Marlowe with the fighting game. Annie easily outdoes Hitch with DDR. Pieck drives circles around everyone before taking the first place in the racing game. 

But these are all outcomes that everyone expected. Or perhaps Bertolt feels that way because it’s only obvious that they’ll always win. They are trained Warriors. These kinds of silly games are nothing compared to the training they do at school.

He knows that. He really does.

These kinds of victory is nothing to be joyous over. This outcome is only expected. Being happy about this is like being happy is not only poor form, but it’s also rude to their opponents.

He knows that.

But when Eren’s eyes light up like that as he howls in victory, it’s exhilarating. It’s not just Eren either. Their opponents are gracious losers. They pat the Warriors’ shoulders, excitedly congratulating them for the victory. Few of them even ask for tips on how to get better at these games. It’s clear that none of them care too much about victory or loss. They’re all just here for a good time.

Perhaps it’s because of that, even Bertolt finds himself enjoying this.

It looks like Hitch is starting to get impatient, though. Because she suggests the claw machine as the next game to play.

“That’s not a game,” Eren complains.

Marlowe elbows Eren. “Just go along with her, alright?”

Bertolt wonders if this is considered bullying as he pulls out yet another doll while the other team returns with nothing. He thinks it might be, because Hitch stomps her foot as she yells angrily.

“This isn’t fair! You didn’t do anything as always! You’re just letting others take you to victory!” 

He hangs his head. Yes, that’s true. He really didn’t do much. He just sat in the back and let everyone win for him. He understands her frustrations. And he feels especially bad for having so much fun along the way, too.

“Like seriously, where the hell do you find people so loyal to you?” Marlowe asks, shaking his head.

Bertolt realizes with a start that none of these words are directed at him.

Eren looks uncomfortable at their words. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re just friends having a good time.”

“Friends, my ass,” Floch grumbles. “Hey, is he threatening you guys? Or maybe he’s paying you to help him? He’s that kind of a person, you know?”

Bertolt feels his temper flare, and it surprises him. He didn’t think he could feel anger. But more so than that, why is he getting so angry for? It makes no sense.

“Isn’t that only natural?” Marcel asks, surprising everyone.

When it looks like everyone is staring at him in mild confusion and shock, he continues with his confident smile. Knowing that Marcel has this covered, Bertolt feels his anger subsiding. But it still leaves him confused. Why did he feel so angry?

“We,” here, Marcel motions at his fellow Gifted students from the private school, “are Warriors. Our victory is for our leader.”

Bertolt feels like that’s well-put, but Eren makes a face like he hates it. Bertolt wonders why. Does he not like the leadership position? But Bertolt feels like Eren’s well-suited for it. If not Marcel, Bertolt wouldn’t mind…

Those are dangerous thoughts. He puts a stop to it before he falls too far down the rabbit hole.

“Jeesh, aren’t you well-loved as always?” Floch grumbles.

This isn’t getting anywhere. Everyone seems content on arguing about nothing. 

“Uh… I-if you want one, then…” Bertolt hands over one of the dolls he won from the machine (Not the bunny, of course. That's for Eren. As soon as Bertolt builds up enough courage to do so, he's going to gift it to Eren as a thank you for all the help). “I don’t mind giving it to you. As a… t-thank you. For the fun.”

Hitch stares at him blankly. S-should he not have done this? 

As soon as the question enters his head, Hitch breaks into a huge grin.

“Ah, what the hell! You’re a sweetie! Hey, listen. Eren’s bad news. You should hang with us instead.” She pauses and turns to the rest of the Warriors (and Porco). “That goes for all of you. This guy’s really bad news! Last time we hung out together, we almost got thrown in jail!”

“How many times do I have to say that you can’t go to jail for releasing the animals in the zoo?” Eren snaps.

No, no. Bertolt is pretty sure you can go to prison for that.

“Well, anyways, you still lost five out of six games. What do you say we go for an early lunch and we call it a day?”

 

*

 

“Ohhhh, you guys are from that fancy pants private school?” Hitch exclaims. “I heard you have to study all day there!”

The other girls all let out "oooooh"s and "ahhhhh"s like they're just here to emphasize Hitch.

Pieck giggles. “No, no. It’s nothing that intense. We have plenty of downtime.”

“But we never see you guys hang out in the town. You guys don’t have to shop?” one of the girls asks.

“We tend to just buy things that we need online,” Pieck says. “It’s just… we never really had a good reason to leave before.”

Hitch makes a face. “I can’t imagine that. Doesn’t it feel like you’re caged in?”

To be honest, Annie never thought about it.

A cage?

Is that what everyone considers their school as? Is that how Eren felt when he first arrived at Marley? That they’re stuck inside a cage? Is that why he agreed to take them out? In order to free them from their cage like they’re animals at the zoo?

But she’s never felt that way. She knows that they can leave whenever they want to. It’s not like someone twisted their arms and told them to stay. And it isn't like they are constantly told to study either. They have more than enough of downtime. It's up to them to decide what they want to do with it.

“Man, I feel really bad for you guys, though,” one of the girls says.

“Bad? Why?” Annie asks.

Hitch makes a small motion towards where the boys are sitting together. Whatever Floch said must have been ridiculous, because Eren bursts out laughing. Seeing that, the other Warriors join in, looking a little confused as to why they’re laughing. Those from the other side look at Eren like he’s a monster for laughing, though.

Just a little, Annie thinks she understands where these girls are coming from.

“Eren’s… a little messed up in the head. Like, he can be sweet and kind. But he’s also… not quite all there, if that makes sense? So like short bursts of meeting with him is fun and exciting, but being with him all the time can get… really intense.”

“Can you give us an example?” Pieck asks.

She has a pleasant smile on her face, but Annie knows that look. Although Marcel (and therefore Reiner, who copies everything Marcel does recently) seems to have more or less accepted Eren as one of them, Pieck must not be convinced. Annie sips her soda quietly.

“This one time when we were running from the cops, Mikasa kicked Marlowe down. And well, since it’s Mikasa and it was either that or all of us get caught, I just figured I’ll buy him lunch later and we’ll all be fine, right? Well, a few minutes later when the cops are interrogating Marlowe on the streets, Eren ran back with a bunch of rocks that he used to pelt at the cops. But his aim was so bad that a good portion of it hit Marlowe instead. When we all got caught and rounded up, Armin innocently explained that we were just playing snowball fights.”

With rocks?!

“And the cops bought it. I was terrified that Mikasa’s infamous family will get involved, but there was none of that. We were super lucky that it was Detective Erwin who was in charge at the time. He just ruffled our hairs and told us to be more mindful of others. They completely forgot that they were chasing us for spray painting the streets.”

No, no. the moral of the story isn’t that Eren is weird. It’s clearly the cops that are corrupt! 

“And this one time, Eren, he… He just barged into the girls’ locker room while we were changing to find Mikasa. Even though all the girls were yelling at him to leave, he wouldn’t until Mikasa finally lent him her gym shorts. And when we confronted him later about that, he dared to ask what was so important to hide, the human body is the human body. He’s so dumb and clueless sometimes. It makes me want to strangle him.”

Annie feels like rubbing her temples and apologizing for his stupidity. And isn’t that just stupid? Why should she feel responsible or second-hand embarrassment for all of this?

“But if there’s one good thing, I will say this,” Hitch adds with a small smile. “He’s pretty good at finding people with talent.”

Hitch holds up the small doll that Bertolt gave her from the claw machine. It looks a little like an ugly baby duck with dark gray patches all over. The eyes are a little lopsided, but Annie feels like it adds to the charm of it.

“Now I can finally say a cute guy got me a doll from the claw machine! If that guy wasn’t so obviously in love with Eren, I’d totally go for him. Hahaha!”

Annie glances at Pieck, who looks just as miffed as she does. Good. She’s not the only one lost.

“Bertolt isn’t in love with Eren,” Annie informs her.

The girls all giggle like they're mocking her.

“Ohhhhhh, Annie, you like him?”

“No.”

“Ouch. That was super fast.”

Annie shrugs. “We’re comrades in arms. All feelings between us are just that at worst, and at best, family.”

Hitch lets out a groan. She starts steering her fruity tea with her straw aggressively as if trying to distract herself from this line of conversation.

“We’re girls, you know?” She says something so obvious with an annoyed grimace. “Whether those feelings are platonic or not, we’re allowed to use everything as a weapon to get what we want.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” Pieck disagrees. There’s a tight smile on her face that Annie can’t help but to agree.

There’s a look in Hitch’s eyes that seems far too sharp. Then she smiles, letting that look disappear within the second like the foam in her tea from aggressive stirring.

“How lucky for you that that’s your world view. Hang onto it and don’t let reality shake you too much. Else you’ll end up like those stupid boys.”

At her nod, Annie turns to glance at the guys. Eren’s face is red as he protests something. Marlowe shakes his head and sighs in a dramatic manner that’s clearing teasing. Floch grins and says something that makes Eren yell at him in panic. The Warriors’ laughter seem far more sincere now. They look like they’re all having a good time.

“How do you fall for the same charming grins of the devil every time?” Hitch mutters darkly.

“Excuse me?” 

But Pieck’s question is flushed as Hitch turns to them with a fake smile on her face.

“I hope you guys don’t mind if I already think of us as friends? I would love to be able to hang out and go shopping together!”

Pieck glances at Annie this time. The two of them come to a decision without any words. Then Annie leans back, letting Pieck take care of the conversation. Without giving a firm yes or no, Pieck delicately plays a word game with the girls that sounds positive without being it.

Annie knows that when it comes down to it, no one will actually push forward with any promises. Unless it’s an order, they won’t move. And these girls don’t have an aura of a leader to be able to push them into action. Besides, from what little Annie has seen, it also looks like these girls would rather not get that close aside from superficial friendships.

There’s a faint voice in the back of her mind that accuses her of following Eren’s lead. She pushes the voice that sounds suspiciously a lot like Hitch further back and sips her soda.

 

*

 

“I think you should stop here, Eren.”

It takes a second for those words to sink in, because of the music blaring in his ears. Eren turns off his music and faces Willy, who gives him a tight smile as he physically stops Eren from painting any more.

This time, the painting is of… Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie? The three of them seem content. Annie has a faint smile on her face as she glances away from the other two. Reiner is laughing brightly and Bertolt looks like he’s chuckling. The three are sitting at what looks like a camp somewhere, wearing what looks to be some kind of military uniform. 

Eren can’t make heads or tails of it. He doesn’t think that these three are particularly all that close. If anyone, it makes more sense to draw Marcel, Pieck, and Porco laughing. Those three are actually friends, aren’t they?

“I fear that if I let you paint anymore, you’ll start splattering red paint all over them. But just for now, let’s let them be happy,” Willy says, his voice soft.

Numbly, Eren nods. 

A glance around the room lets him know that almost everyone has already left. Porco and Marcel are by the door with Pieck, looking like they’re having a pleasant conversation. It doesn’t look like they’ve noticed this painting. 

Good.

Eren yanks it off the canvas and throw it at the ground before anyone else can see it. It lands with the paint facing down. Faintly, he hears Willy’s soft whimper. But more so than Willy, Eren feels horrible for doing this to the janitorial staff.

“N-not like… that,” Willy sighs.

But because of the drop, the three by the door have stopped talking and are curiously gazing towards Eren.

“It got caught,” he lies to them. 

Then he peels the canvas off the ground, grimacing at the way the paint has smeared all over the floor. He should most definitely clean this up before going to dinner. But before he could even think about that, Willy touches his shoulder lightly and motions to follow to his desk. Once there, Willy hesitates, eyes glancing towards the trio by the door for a second. Then he seems to change his mind because he holds up a flier instead.

“There’s an art competition happening right now. Why don’t you submit a piece? I have a good feeling about it.”

“N-no thank you. I wouldn’t feel right.”

Willy nods. “I-I see… Uh… H-hey Eren? If you want to talk to someone about your mom’s divorce, feel free to come to me. O-or if you want, I can just let you paint whatever you want. I won’t stop you if you don’t want me to.”

“It’s fine. I’d rather you stop me before everything turns muddy brown. Thank you.”

Eren leaves before the conversation gets any more awkward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask, but what class did we skip this morning, Porco?” Eren asks.
> 
> Porco waves a lazy hand in the air as they eat their dinner. “Ah, it’s just Mr. Zeke’s class. You don’t have to pay attention to him. He’s too soft to give anyone anything but an A.”
> 
> …
> 
> That’s right.
> 
> Eren can’t believe himself. How the hell did he forget the important thing?
> 
> “You alright, Eren?” Marcel asks, glancing at him worriedly.
> 
> “Y-yeah. J-just fine… hahaha…”
> 
> Eren buries his face in his hands. Tomorrow, he promises himself. Tomorrow for sure, he’ll go find Zeke.


	5. Day 4 - Wednesday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit more of a serious chapter than before. 
> 
> Warning: There's two scenes in this chapter with unnecessarily brutal violence and another scene with mentioned gore. If these are things that make you uncomfortable please feel free to skip these parts or just drop this story.

It was something that happened two winters ago, a day before Christmas Eve. 

Floch was waiting for his parents to come pick him up at the police station after he and Eren were dragged here as witnesses to a robbery that Mikasa stopped. The officers were in merry mood, bringing over slices of cakes for the two of them with light laugh.

“I don’t want it,” Eren growled, crossing his arms in front of himself.

Like a spoiled brat, he ruined the mood with his sourness. Floch scowled and made a jab that he doesn’t remember now. But Detective Erwin took it all in good stride. He laughed and talked at Eren, because the childish brat refused to say anything. Floch thought Erwin was being much too kind.

Then Eren’s guardian showed up with Armin, and Eren did a complete 180. Abandoning a softly smiling Erwin, Eren ran to Armin and talked about this or that that Floch doesn’t remember. But the look on Eren’s face was of relief as Armin laughed. And the guardian thanked the officers profusely for taking care of her kid as always.

What Floch does remember is that after Eren left, Erwin turned to him with a request.

“Do you mind keeping your eyes on him, Floch? He’s rough around the edges, but he’s a good kid.”

Floch remembers distinctly getting annoyed. “Why? Who cares if he’s a good kid? He’s always getting in trouble.”

“That’s true,” Erwin said with a sad look in his eyes. He sat down next to Floch. “I’m probably biased because Eren has been in and out of the station since he was little. I’ve watched him grow, so he feels just like a son to me. If it looks like he might get into trouble or if he’s struggling alone, won’t you please look out for him?”

At the time, Floch found Eren to be a horribly pathetic child. Someone who needs to be looked after to the point that a police officer will ask Floch for help. And since Floch is a responsible kid who knows right from wrong, he decides to take it upon himself to keep an eye on Eren.

It just so happens that most of the time, Eren is surrounded by people who encourage him or take care of him, so Floch never had to take action.

But it’s different this time.

He doesn’t know why, but Jean is pretending to be Eren at school (Floch has his own theory about this that involves black magic, but both Hitch and Marlowe told him to stuff it, so he’s not going to share it with anyone but his dedicated fans who follow his blog… All 2 of them). And apparently both Armin and Mikasa are stupid enough to fall for it (Again, black magic. Has to be in order to get someone as smart as both Armin and Mikasa). 

That means that for the first time since Floch has gotten to know Eren, he is alone.

Alone and vulnerable. The perfect combination for Floch to snoop in and sweep Eren off his feet. Then for sure, Detective Erwin would be proud to have Floch has his son-in-law!

That is the only reason why he snuck over the walls of Marley Private Institute for the Gifted with this digital camera using a grappling hook he borrowed from the hiking club while they weren’t looking. He made sure to leave a note signed by Jean, so at the very least, Mina will be strangling Jean who is pretending to be Eren before ever realizing the truth.

If Eren is hanging out with a bunch of private school kids, then he’s probably illegally sneaking into this school. Floch will use his camera to capture that moment and… and something. He hasn’t actually thought that far yet.

But he’s certain once he has the picture evidence, the plan will just magically appear to him.

What he doesn’t expect, however, is to see one Eren Jaeger in the uniform of this stupid prestigious private school. What he doesn’t expect is to see Eren laughing with the mob private school guys that Floch vaguely recalls meeting yesterday. What he doesn’t expect is to suddenly come face to face with the fact that he most definitely has a uniform fetish.

The camera goes off multiple times, capturing the moment before Eren ever realizes that Floch is here. 

And it’s only because he’s so caught up in staring at Eren that he sees it. 

The bug.

It’s a huge ass thing, too. Floch thinks it might be a beetle. But that kind of a huge sized bug should never exist. Especially anywhere near a pretty picture as this is going to be. But it’s flying near Eren, continuously getting in the way of Floch’s picture-taking.

So without thinking Floch makes himself known, jumping out of the bushes he was hiding behind.

The words “Step on that thing” is half-way out of his mouth when Eren looks over and sees him. Eren’s expression freezes. Then it turns thunderous.

The words “It’s not what you think” and “Just pose for me” and “Step on that thing” all mixes together and trips on Floch’s typically glib tongue.

“Eren, step on me!” comes out instead.

And in the silence that follows, Floch wants nothing more than to be swallowed up by the earth. 

It’s not until he’s running away from Eren’s disgusted expression and half-way over the wall that he realizes that he probably should have explained himself.

 

*

 

“What uh… was that?” Marcel asks, staring at where Floch has disappeared off to.

“Floch, that fucking…”

Eren doesn’t finish the rest. He’s too busy running after the damned idiot that dared to show up just to yell something so… so… Eren’s cheeks are red. He most definitely didn’t need to know that Floch has a thing for being stepped on! Isn’t that sort of things you’re supposed to keep secret until your grave? Why the hell would Floch so carelessly yell that before running off? Was it a prank? He just said that to piss Eren off?

But worse still, that camera that Floch had… If he took pictures, then isn’t it possible that it’ll be used to blackmail Eren in the future?

No matter what, he needs to prevent that.

He realizes in the next second that someone has caught up with him. Marcel keeps up easily, giving Eren an almost lazy smile. 

“We just need to catch him, right?”

“Y-yeah,” Eren answer, still a bit miffed that Marcel followed him.

Marcel nods. “Porco!”

Eren feels like he’s always underestimating these guys.

Porco blows past the two of them at what has to be an impossible speed. He doesn’t even glance back at Eren to give an assuring smile. Instead, he just… He climbs up the tree from yesterday with familiarity that suggests that he has done this multiple times before. Then he’s over the wall, free to give chase where Floch has gone.

“Don’t look so shocked,” Marcel tells Eren with a snigger.

And with the same familiarity and ease as Porco, Marcel uses the tree to climb onto the top of the wall. From there, he lies down flat against the top of the wall and reaches for Eren with his hand. Even like that, Eren will have to jump pretty high to climb and get over the wall. In fact, if he mistimes it or miscalculates this, he’ll end up yanking Marcel back down to this side.

But the grin on Marcel’s face remains calm and confident. There’s not a single trace of doubt or fear in those eyes.

“We’re Warriors, remember?”

Then was yesterday’s hard work of setting up the blanket rope all to indulge Eren? Did they think of Eren as an idiot as he showed them how to tie the blankets together? These stupid private school kids are worse than Jean. Why couldn’t they have just told him instead of showing him off like this?

“Eren?” Marcel calls, his voice beginning to tinge with worry.

That worry is at least sincere. The look of concern on Marcel’s face is most definitely earnest. 

These kids are not the malicious type. They probably looked onto Eren like a cute kid, curious as to see what he’s up to. 

Somehow, that’s vexing, too.

“I’m… never going to catch up to you, am I?” 

It’s not as dismayed as he thought it’d sound out in the air between the two of them. It sounds a little more like acceptance. A reluctant kind of peace.

Marcel’s expression is soft. His chuckles sound gentle. There’s an air about him that feels… Eren doesn’t know how to describe it. “Gentle,” “kind,” “nice,” and “soft,” all seem fitting but not quite right. There’s something more to that expression. Something more to this tightness in Eren’s chest.

“You don’t need to ‘catch up,’ Eren. We, the Warriors, have grown up in this environment and were raised a certain way. It’s expected of us to think and act in the way we’ve been told. But you’re different. Hm… that’s not quite what I wanted to say…”

Marcel actually looks a little distressed as he mutters under his breath, trying to find a good way to explain.

But to be honest, even if he doesn’t, Eren gets the feeling that he knows what Marcel wants to get at. That it’s not an insult. That it’s fine to be different.

Because, as Armin said before, this world is more exciting when there are different kinds of people, right?

“Let’s see, a better way to explain might be… Oh, a painting! We were raised with just one color. Let’s say that the color is blue. Everything we paint on our canvas is that. Blue. Different shades of blue, maybe. But it’s all just blue. But you, Eren. You have the colors of the rainbow on your fingertips. Everything you touch transforms the world in ways we’ve never thought about, we’ve never seen before. It’s… it’s exhilarating. It’s breathtaking. I feel that if I ever take my eyes off of you, I’ll miss out on something very important.”

“You’re giving me far too much credit,” Eren protests.

Marcel shakes his head. “That’s easy for you to say since those brilliant colors are the norm for you. But for us… I’ve never seen a green as vibrant as your eyes. So there’s no need to catch up. The place you stand is not beneath us. Eren, we’re standing on equal ground. C’mon, let’s go after Porco.”

What devious words to say with Marcel on top of the wall and Eren looking up at him. 

No wonder Porco keeps trying to warn Eren of Marcel’s “honeyed” words. But Eren has met true snakes. Those with silver tongues that gently push poison down your throat with wide smiles of insincerity. 

Marcel isn’t that.

Perhaps one day, Marcel might become that. In order to protect the Warriors or whatever else ideology he wants to defend. Eren isn’t a strategist nor can he see the future. But that is surely one of the routes before Marcel. But right now…

Right now, Marcel is sincere. 

Right now, Marcel is…

“I trust you,” Eren finds himself saying.

Marcel’s eyes shine with an emotion Eren doesn’t know how to read. “And I trust you.”

Then that’s all they need, right?

Eren jumps for Marcel’s hand.

And finds himself caught in someone’s arms, preventing him from going anywhere.

It’s because he kept his eyes on Marcel’s face that he sees the grin melt into something cold. Something terrifying.

Slowly, Eren turns his face to see what exactly is making Marcel make that expression. And he comes to face a big, sturdy chest of one Reiner Braun.

There’s a forced grin on Reiner’s face that looks a little more like a snarl. And now that Eren thinks about it, does Reiner and Marcel not get along? 

“You guys have some nerve skipping class two days in a row,” he says in fake cheerfulness.

“What are you going to do about it, Reiner? Stop us?” Marcel asks in a tone of voice that seems much too angry for what is happening.

Eren feels a bit confused, but he’s not completely clueless as to not understand what Reiner must want.

“Come with us!” he says confidently, calmly. Like how Marcel called out to Porco to get him to run over the wall and give chase. “Then there’s no issue, right?”

He doesn’t know what that look in Reiner’s eyes mean. Nor does he know why Reiner suddenly blushes like that. But he knows that there’s no need to fight here.

They’re all on the same side.

And if they aren’t, then all Eren has to do is force them to see it his way. He’s always been good at that.

 

*

 

“You guys are late!” Porco yells out when he finally sees his brother and Eren approaching. 

He’s about a block away from the school, so he thought that they would get here faster. Unless they decided to set up the blanket ropes again? But why? Bertolt isn’t here to make the use of it. It’ll be much better to just use each other as support to jump over the wall.

Just as those thoughts enter his brain, he sees Reiner. 

Ah, he realizes. They must have been disturbed.

“The hell are you doing here?” Porco growls at Reiner.

“Eren invited me!” is Reiner’s bright and happy answer.

If that’s the case, Porco supposes he’s not allowed to get angry. What a pain.

“I caught the guy,” Porco tells Eren, motioning behind him.

Floch groans in response. It was surprisingly pretty easy. Because of how panicked Eren looked, Porco thought this guy might be strong or even fast. But he doesn’t even seem all that resourceful, if the fact that there aren’t any backup is any indication. To be honest, Porco feels disappointed that he got this worked up over some random guy.

“He has a camera-”

Porco tosses it over. “Sorry. It broke when I slammed into him.”

But Eren looks relieved, so Porco figures it’s all fine now. Eren turns to Floch, holding up the camera.

“Not a word of this to anyone,” Eren growls.

Floch makes a small movement that Eren must have taken for a nod. Porco wonders what’s on that camera and why Eren reacted like that.

“Are we good? Then shall we head back?” Marcel asks.

“Yeah. Thanks so much for your help,” Eren tells both brothers.

“It just seems like a waste,” Reiner says suddenly. “I mean, you guys went out yesterday, but you didn’t even bring me a single souvenir despite the fact that I held the fort down and took notes for everyone. I worked so hard, but none of you even spared a single thought for-”

“C’mon, Eren. Let’s go,” Porco says as he directs Eren away.

But there’s a guilty look on Eren’s face. Porco tries to tell him with his eyes that it’s not worth it. You should never engage Reiner. But unlike Marcel who chooses to ignore Porco, Eren seems to not understand what Porco is telling him with his eyes.

“Then… shall we watch a movie? The morning matinee shows are always cheaper.”

Reiner grins widely, much to Porco’s annoyance.

“Yeah! There’s this movie I really wanted to watch! Let’s go!”

It takes a second for Porco to realize that Reiner meant that he’ll go watch it with just Eren. Because Reiner gives both Porco and Marcel a curious quirk of eyebrows when he realizes they aren’t leaving.

“Weren’t you going to go back?” Reiner asks in a voice that’s begging to be punched.

Damn him.

Like hell Porco can allow someone as naive as Eren to go off with whatever the hell Reiner is planning! Look, Eren relies on Porco. Not anyone else. But Porco. Then it’s up to Porco to keep an eye on Eren.

“I… have to go to the bookstore anyways!” Porco growls. 

Marcel whistles lowly. “Porco? A bookstore? This, I need to see! Looks like I’ll be going with you, too!”

After throwing Porco so easily under a bus, Marcel puts his arm around Eren’s shoulders. The grin on his face seem friendly, but the slight glare Marcel shoots Reiner is anything but. Did something happen between Marcel and Eren? Or perhaps something happened between Marcel and Reiner? 

Porco can’t tell. But this kind of hostility towards Reiner is something Marcel has ever displayed. No matter how annoying Reiner was or how much he tried to copy Marcel, Marcel always just smiled and laughed it off without much care. What changed for him to suddenly address it like this?

Oh well.

He doesn’t actually care all that much. Besides, it’ll be easier to keep Reiner in check if Marcel’s coming, too. 

It seems that Reiner understands, because the smile on his face is forced.

Eren glances at them curiously before turning to Floch.

“Hey, you want to come with?”

“T-the hell are you inviting him for?!” Porco exclaims.

“It’s easier to keep him in check if he’s within my eyesight.” With such a cheap excuse, Eren holds his hand out for Floch to take. “You’re coming, right, Wallet?”

Floch sobs about gods and devils. Then he reaches into his pocket and hands his wallet over to Eren. Seeing that, Eren giggles and accepts.

“Well, if you don’t want to come along, then I guess I’ll just have to accept this instead!”

Porco can’t help but to glance at Marcel. It looks like his brother is completely charmed by Eren. He wonders if it’s because the two are more similar than Porco first gave them credit for. But without any hesitation, Porco can say that Eren is much cuter.

After all, Eren relies on Porco.

 

*

 

The only movie they’re playing in the morning is some kind of an action flick that Eren looks like he really wants to watch. 

Reiner had been hoping that a romance flick would be playing. He really wanted to cuddle next to Eren and m-maybe… h-hold hands…

Virgin Maiden Reiner is very much ready for this date!

Even with these two annoying tagalongs, he is ready to make the best of things. But it’s really hard to cultivate a romantic atmosphere during an action movie. If Eren’s eyes weren’t so sparkly as he said he really wanted to watch this movie, Reiner would’ve insisted that they find a different theater.

But this isn’t what he expected either.

Eren is seated between the two brothers with Reiner sitting two rows behind them. This must be what Marcel was doing when he was getting the tickets. The theater is empty enough that it shouldn’t matter where they sit. This reeks of foul play.

“Reiner, why are you so far away? Come here,” Eren calls.

Ahhhh, what an angel! If Eren insists, Reiner will gladly sit on Eren’s lap-

Or maybe it should be Eren sitting on Reiner’s lap? Either way, the thought of it is more than enough to make Reiner feel giddy. He moves to sit right behind Eren. 

“This movie is supposed to be really gory, so if that’s not something you guys like, feel free to let me know and we can leave,” Eren warns them.

Reiner laughs. Porco scoffs and even Marcel chuckles.

“We’re Warriors,” Reiner tells Eren proudly. “This is-”

 

*

 

“-oh dear god. Who the hell gave the okay to make such a film? What kind of a sicko funded it? It was… What the fuck? What the fuck?”

For once, Porco agrees with everything coming out of Reiner’s mouth. He leans against the sink, washing his face as he tries really hard not to fall over to the side. Even Marcel looks sickly as he leans against the wall by the door.

“Organs don’t work like that! The human body wouldn’t pump out your organs out of your… Ughhhhhh.”

Reiner buries his face in his hands, letting out a soft moan. Porco pats him on the shoulder. 

“I… can’t believe Eren loves watching things like that,” Marcel mumbles.

The three of them had to leave in the middle of the showing at the sheer amount of gore. But Eren had stayed there, staring at the screen in awe. Porco wouldn’t be shocked if that bastard didn’t even realize the three of them left.

“No wonder the theater was empty,” Porco grumbles. 

“I can’t go back in there,” Reiner mumbles. “If you guys want to go back, be my guest. I’ll wait in front of the theater door.”

And Porco can’t believe he’s fallen so low to do this. But he agrees.

Marcel glances at the two of them and then nods slowly. 

“I’ll… I’ll see you guys on the other side.”

Porco and Reiner send Marcel back in with prayers that he’ll return safely.

 

*

 

Eren glances up when Marcel sits down next to him. There’s a cheeky grin on his face as he leans in and whispers, “The others couldn’t handle it?”

“You… have to admit it’s a lot of blood,” Marcel says tactfully.

Eren giggles. “Yeah. It is, isn’t it? That’s why no one wanted to watch it with me. But it’s hard to get sickened by that when Mr. Levi’s on screen.”

“Mr. Levi?”

Eren motions at the actor on screen, who slits the throat of the enemy. Marcel shudders at the viciousness (and extremely fake!) way the blood splurts out.

“He’s an actor?” 

As soon as the question leaves his mouth, Marcel recalls Eren mentioning something about the special effects for movies. Right. Then perhaps the reason why Eren finds this relatively normal is because of them. And once Marcel starts thinking about this in a technical way, the blood looks less sickening and more fascinating.

How did they think to film it like that? Why did they choose to frame it as such? What did they use to make the blood splurt like that? What kind of machinery did they use? How did they build it? Who came up with such an idea to create something like that? 

A glance at Eren makes him wonder if this is why Eren wanted to watch this. 

The flashes of light from the movie capture the adoration on Eren’s face as he watches. More so than the movie, Marcel ends up watching Eren instead.

This feeling in his chest… 

He wonders what it is.

 

*

 

The movie was a failure, but Reiner is determined to not let today go to waste.

“Alright, to the bookstore!” he says with renewed vigor.

Porco gives Reiner a dirty look. But hey, Porco’s the one who said he wanted to go to the bookstore. So hah. 

“What book did you want?” Eren asks Porco.

From the blush on Porco’s face, Reiner knows exactly what kind of filthy otaku book Porco must want. He wants to tease Porco. He really, really wants to. But as a fellow otaku, Reiner can’t sell his friend out like that.

“Do you want to look through the bookstore, too? If not, want to just wait for Porco to finish in a cafe?”

Okay, fine. Reiner might have a bit of an ulterior motive, too. But he wants a date with Eren, so this much can be forgiven, right?

“What a great idea. I would love some tea,” Marcel says with a cold smile.

… Reiner may or may not have forgotten about this guy.

Damn it.

“Actually, I wouldn’t mind looking through the bookstore,” Eren tells them sheepishly. “There’s a manga I’ve been waiting for.”

An angel! An angel! 

Reiner wants to grab Eren in a bear hug and spin him around. 

“You like manga, too?”

Eren looks amused at that. “What’s that supposed to mean? What’s there not to like? There a gazillion different manga in the world. I’m sure there’s at least one that suits your tastes!”

“… Then care to help me find one?” Marcel asks.

What… what smoothness! As expected of Marcel! To be able to deliver such a simple yet daring line with such a high level of smoothness…! Reiner has underestimated him.

“I accept your challenge,” Eren tells Marcel with a grin.

Reiner frowns. Isn’t this supposed to be a date between himself and Eren? Why is Marcel butting in?

He gets a bad feeling about this.

 

*

 

“Hide.”

Eren only manages to grab Porco to hide in the alleyway. Thankfully, both Marcel and Reiner have good enough heads on their shoulders to move. The three look at him, waiting for the signal that everything is okay. But Eren can’t give it.

He could’ve sworn he saw…

“Hey, Shitty Brat. Who do you think you’re hiding from?”

“Ah, I thought I saw Mr. Levi, so I was just…”

Eren trails off when he realizes exactly who has spoken to him. He slowly turns and yup. There he is.

Mr. Levi himself.

“W-w-weren’t you supposed to be overseas this week?!” Eren squeaks as he tries to hide behind Porco.

Porco looks a bit confused, but he seems to understand Eren’s desperation. Because there’s a determined look on his face as he glares at Levi. In fact, it’s not just Porco. Reiner and Marcel both look serious as they face against Levi.

But the power level difference is so obvious from the way Levi doesn’t even glance at them. His eyes are locked on Eren almost as if he doesn’t see the others.

“Oh? You remembered my schedule? You never do that unless you’re about to do something really stupid and dangerous. What the hell did you do this time, Shitty Brat?”

There’s a small pause as if Levi just realized the other three. He slowly looks at them and then at Eren, who is still hiding behind Porco. Then he must have put something together because he lets out a soft, “Oh.”

“W-whatever you just thought of, I’m pretty sure it’s wrong!”

Levi raises a brow, and Eren realizes that he shouldn’t have said anything at all. 

“Is that so? Then I’m sure you won’t mind explaining.”

 

*

 

“Shitty Brat, go get us drinks and something to eat,” Levi orders as he passes his wallet to Eren.

“Y-yes sir!”

Eren’s eyes look like they’re permanently stuck in a wide-eyed look of terror. Marcel takes pity on him and stands up to help.

“I don’t remember giving you permission to stand,” comes Levi’s sharp words.

Marcel quickly sits back down.

They’re in a bakery of sorts, sitting at one of the booths. Levi makes a shooing motion at Eren, who gives Marcel, Reiner, and Porco an apologetic look before running for the long line. And it’s not until Eren is clearly out of earshot that Levi finally turns to the three of them with a scowl.

“Alright, which one of you is it?”

“W-what do you mean?” Marcel asks timidly.

“The one dating Eren.”

… Dating…? Why would this man think-

“Oh, so it must be you,” Levi says, nodding at Reiner.

Reiner’s face is beet red. He covers his face with his hands, looking like he doesn’t know how to express himself. And something about this irks Marcel to no end.

“They’re not dating,” Porco corrects. “None of us are. We’re just friends.”

Levi stares at Porco blankly for a second. Then he turns to Reiner.

“How much can you lift? You have a good build, so at the very least, you’re clearly Eren’s type. I’d guess you can at least carry Eren with ease?”

Sorry, Porco. It seems this man has absolutely no interest in what you want to say. But Marcel has no plans on letting him think that Reiner is the one dating Eren. He isn’t sure why, but that’s something that Marcel absolutely cannot allow.

“I-I can carry him,” Reiner says at the same time Marcel says, “We can all carry Eren. It's not that hard.”

There’s a glint in Levi’s eyes as if he’s amused. But the sneer on his face seems to say he’s anything but. Marcel can’t get a read on him at all. As expected of an actor. How terrifying. Just what is he thinking?

“Tch. That’s just like that brat, taking after me. Stringing along three guys, huh?”

No, there seems to be a huge misunderstanding here. And why the hell does this man look so smug?

“So what does he need three private school brats for that he had to keep a secret from me?”

Perhaps because he was overseas, he didn’t hear about Eren’s mom’s divorce? Marcel feels like he should inform him, but it looks like Levi is now mumbling under his breath, musing theories out loud. Even if Marcel explained, he gets the feeling Levi won’t hear him.

“If it was something simple, he would’ve just used Armin and Mikasa. But seeing that Mikasa is coping with a ‘Lesser Eren,’ he has to have cut them off. Which would mean…”

Wait, what’s this about a “Lesser Eren?”

Eren returns with a tray filled with sweet goodies and teas. He excitedly puts the tray down in front of all of them, lips pulled up into a delighted smile. Levi’s musings seem to have ended for now.

“They have new cakes! Look! Look!”

“Shitty Brat, how much of my money did you spend?” Levi complains as he accepts his wallet back.

“It’s fine! I used Floch’s money for these!”

Levi frowns. “Tch. Another one?”

Marcel figures it’ll be best for all of their sanity to not comment on that.

“I have no idea what you guys like, so I just got the ones I wanted to eat,” Eren tells them without any shame. 

He gives everyone a cup of tea while putting all the sweets in front of himself. But the happy expression on his face makes it impossible for Marcel to argue against it. Instead, he just opens his mouth for Eren to share.

“Do you like strawberries?” Eren asks as he dutifully feeds Marcel with the same fork he’s been using to eat.

“I-I like strawberries, too!” Reiner, that bastard, jumps in. 

Porco gives both of them a look of pure disbelief. Marcel will just like to point out that he did it first. Reiner, as always, is just copying him. So Porco should really aim that disbelief at Reiner, not Marcel.

“Hey Shitty Brat, I’m sure you remember my requirements about you dating?”

Eren pauses in trying to feed Reiner to look at Levi in confusion. “Huh? Dating? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Playing dumb? You’re as ballsy as ever. Unless your partner can defeat me in arm wrestling, you’re not allowed.”

“No, seriously. What does that have to do with-”

Reiner puts his arm on the table as he glares at Levi. “I accept!”

Damn it! Marcel should’ve reacted faster, but he was too distracted by what Eren was saying! 

… Actually, wait. Why is he getting so caught up in this? Dating? W-wait a minute. That’s not it at all. They’re all just friends here. Why is he getting so heated up for? And… does Reiner really like Eren? Like  _ that? _ Is that why he wanted to go watch a movie today? Huh? Why does Marcel feel so damned irritated?

Levi defeats Reiner in seconds. It looks like this is nothing surprising, because Eren has resumed eating the sweets while ignoring all of them. But Levi has this glint in his eyes as he challenges Porco and Marcel.

Porco bravely accepts and is defeated in seconds, too.

And it’s not quite that Marcel wants to date Eren or anything. But he just gets caught up in the spirit of things.

Yeah.

That’s what this is.

It’s their pride of Warriors. That’s all this is.

He accepts Levi’s challenge to an arm wrestling competition.

But Marcel, you see, has always been smart. He understands that he can’t win in a fight of pure strength. After all, this man easily destroyed both Reiner and Porco. Therefore, Marcel’s plan has to rely on something outside of that.

He focuses on something behind Levi. He lets his eyes go wide and lets out a startled gasp of, “Huh?”

It’s just as he expected.

Levi’s attention is momentarily distracted.

There! This is his chance!

Marcel pushes with his all his might to victory, earning the right to date Eren!

…

Yeah, no. That doesn’t happen at all.

Despite being distracted, Levi’s arm doesn’t budge even a smidge. It’s like trying to push a mountain. And by the time Marcel looks up, Levi is sneering at him like a villain that he is.

For the second time since meeting Eren, Marcel faces another complete and utter defeat.

But unlike the time when Eren defeated him, Marcel feels nothing but humiliation and shame from this one.

“Do you like bullying those weaker than you that much?” Eren complains to Levi. 

It seems that he has finished eating all of the sweets, seeing that his attention is now back at the problem at hand. Levi raises an elegant brow while sipping his tea.

More so than the loss, Marcel is much more hurt by Eren’s words. Does he really look that weak? 

“This is why you’re single!”

There’s a cold silence before Levi moves. It’s not that he moved too fast for any of them to stop him. It’s more that his move is so unexpected that Marcel (or Porco or Reiner) couldn’t stop him.

Levi grabs Eren by the back of his head and slams his face into the table. Eren lets out a soft whimper and rubs his forehead. 

“What was that, Shitty Brat?” Levi asks, his voice thick with annoyance.

Marcel’s voice is caught in his throat. He wants to say or do something to help Eren, but he’s completely shell-shocked by this display of violence. Who does that? At the very least, Eren should be able to mend everything by saying something sweet-

“I said you’re single! You deaf-”

_ Smash! _

You know, Eren has always been pretty sensible that it never occurred to Marcel that maybe, just maybe, Eren might be stupid.

“What’s that? It seems old age has caught up with me! Say it again, Shitty Brat,” Levi growls.

“I said you’re sin-”

_ Smash! _

“T-t-that’s enough!” Marcel stutters out. 

Levi pauses, holding Eren’s head by the back of his hair. Eren’s nose is starting to bleed, but it seems that most of the damage was to the forehead, because that’s super red. Either way, this is not something that should normally happen in public, right? Why isn’t anyone else freaking out as much as Reiner, Porco, and Marcel are?

This isn’t normal, right?

“W-we watched your movie this morning! Eren couldn’t keep his eyes off of the screen. H-he thinks you’re really cool. So please, just stop this!”

In the tense silence that follows, Marcel honestly believes that he might have made a mistake.

But then Levi sighs and releases his grip on Eren’s hair. He reaches into his pocket and holds a handkerchief to Eren. 

“You found some nice ones this time,” he tells Eren.

“Yup! And they’re all mine!” Eren replies proudly as he holds the handkerchief against his nose.

Marcel doesn’t understand these two and their dynamic at all. Levi ruffles Eren’s hair affectionately before standing up. What the hell? Is he a psycho or something? He was just beating Eren two seconds ago!

“I expect that back tomorrow.”

“Eh? I can’t get it back to you that fast. I’ll get it to you next week,” Eren protests.

“Tomorrow,” Levi repeats.

Then he’s gone without any actual goodbyes.

Marcel feels like he’s lost ten years from his life from this short encounter.

“That’s Mr. Levi. He’s a bit intense, isn’t he? Sorry about that,” Eren tells the three of them with an apologetic grin.

“You uh… He treats you like that normally?” Porco asks. His voice sounds strange. But it’s not like Marcel can blame him. He still feels like he’s in shock from what just happened.

“Yeah! Isn’t he cool?”

No, no, no! There’s absolutely nothing cool about that! 

And now that Marcel thinks about it, Eren’s words have always been a little off, right? His talk about how his mom was forcing him away because his dad came after him with a syringe was weird enough. But he also skips schools often to hang out at the arcade (and don’t even get Marcel started about the drunkard who works there). And there’s that thing about how okay Eren is with gore…

Has this always been the norm for Eren?

“More so than cool… He’s uh… Are you okay? You’re bleeding a lot,” Reiner seems to have lost his nerve from the way he changes the topic.

“Hm? This is nothing. He stopped before it got really bad today. Guess he just wanted to show off in front of you guys.”

“Isn’t this child abuse?” Porco mumbles. He picks up some napkins to help wipe the blood that dripped onto the table.

“Hahaha! What are you saying, Porco? If he wanted to abuse me, I’d already be dead!”

Somehow, the more he learns about Eren, the more Marcel feels like his chest is going to explode.

*

“Marcel, what are you doing?”

It doesn’t sound like Pieck is angry or anything. Just confused. 

Well, that makes the two of them. 

“You and Reiner both disappeared for morning class. And when we do see you two again, it’s with Eren and Porco, sneaking back from over the wall. Reiner was pale-faced and he couldn’t look at Eren during dinner. Both you and Porco stuck close to Eren with this guilty looks on your faces. Not to mention Eren’s forehead is starting to turn purple. When I asked him, he said he banged his head on a table. Just how hard does someone have to bang their head against a table for it to bruise like that?”

While wondering if this is a breach of privacy, Marcel ends up telling her about what happened today. He hesitates but then decides to tell her about his theories as well.

Pieck, as always, doesn't disappoint.

"When Hitch bought us lunch yesterday, she mentioned some scary things about Eren, too. She said that he's not quite right in the head. I didn't really too much about it, but… if what you're saying is true, then his mom probably sent him to protect him from dangers like Mr. Levi."

Marcel nods. "I think we should help him but… I'm at a complete loss. What are we supposed to do? What can we do to help?”

Pieck hesitates. Seeing that, Marcel knows exactly where she stands. They’ve known each other too long to hide this.

“You want to do nothing?”

“It’s just… There’s really no reason for us to get involved more than this. We can keep him company during his time here. But there’s no reason for us to get to know his family or try to protect him from them. I-I mean, that’s why he’s here in the first place, right? So he’d stay away from them? So as long as he stays here-”

“But that’s the same as what I did today! Watching as he got his face beaten by a man he supposedly admires! What? I’m just supposed to accept that as part of reality? I’m just supposed to let him think that that’s normal? Aren’t we Warriors? Aren’t we supposed to be stronger? To be smarter? What do you mean I can’t do something as simple as protecting him?”

Pieck tilts her head, looking at him curiously. But Marcel doesn’t want to deal with this anymore.

“If you don’t want to, that’s fine. I’ll just-”

“Marcel, when did you lose your head over this?”

He finds himself freezing. Her eyes seem like they can see everything, even through his own cloudy emotions. Does she know? What this frustration in his chest is? Why he feels like he’s about to lose his mind? Why his emotions keep swirling out of control when it’s about Eren?

She breathes out slowly.

“If it’s an order, we’ll move. That’s what we as the Warriors have always done. But right now, you don’t have a plan. Do you even have enough sense to make a decent plan? More importantly, is this what Eren wants? If you’re deciding for him what is right and wrong-”

“So it’s fine that he gets beaten, is that it?” 

Marcel wonders who this person is. Who is this person that is getting mad at Pieck? Who is this person whose face is contorted in such anger? Who is this person that seems to be wearing his face?

“You’re not listening, Marcel. I’m telling you to talk to him.”

And suddenly, the anger is gone. 

Marcel doesn’t understand himself. What is this whirlwind of emotions that he feels? What does it mean? Why does he suddenly feel calm at the thought of seeing Eren again?

“Go talk to him,” she repeats. Firmly this time.

“Alright.”

 

*

 

Eren looks far more tired than Porco expected, which is why he had the guy shower earlier. He’ll just have to share the notes for the past two days from Colt later. He gets the feeling that if he tries to teach him anything now, Eren’ll fall asleep right away. 

Although he supposes that kind of peace will be appreciated after the events of today.

“Hm? Marcel?”

What perfect timing. His stupid brother is probably here to steal Porco’s Shojo Beat again. No matter how much Marcel likes to pretend that he only reads those to tease Porco, it’s obvious to everyone that Marcel likes reading those romantic nothings as much as Porco does. Well, whatever. He can trust Marcel.

“Hey, can you watch over Eren? I’m just going to run to Colt to get notes for class.”

“Watch Eren? He’s not a dog, Porco,” Marcel says with a light sigh. But he smiles reliably like he always does. “Leave it to me.”

Porco doesn’t think twice about it. Why would he? It’s Marcel. Out of everyone, he’s the most trustworthy of them all. Besides, it’s clear that Marcel trusts and likes Eren enough. So Porco doesn’t stop to think more on it.

He just grabs the notes from Colt, thanks him with a light kick, and returns back to his dorm room to find-

Marcel slowly pulls back from the light kiss he pressed onto sleeping Eren’s lips. He glances over at Porco with a cold smile that Porco has no idea how to begin to understand.

“… To watch an intimate moment like that like some kind of a creep… Porco, I thought I raised you better than that.”

Porco sleeps in Colt’s room that night. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eren really gets sloppy when Armin or Mikasa aren’t there to watch his move.
> 
> Floch chuckles as he connects the memory card to his computer. Sure, Porco might have taken his digital camera (and broke it, too, that damned bastard), but the idiot forgot to check for the memory card. Of course, Floch already took it out.
> 
> Like hell he can allow his blackmail material to be so easily taken from him.
> 
> The pictures show up as files on his computer, and he clicks on one to check on the quality. As he’s thought.
> 
> Eren is gorgeous in a uniform.
> 
> It… probably won’t hurt to save a copy to his phone, right? Set it as his wallpaper? In fact, he’ll just print a few copies out to put it on his locker. And maybe he’ll put some on his binder, too. 
> 
> F-for good luck.
> 
> Y-yeah. That’s what this is.


	6. Day 5 - Thursday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone please rescue Porco from me. Out of all the chapters, this one is very guilty of using misunderstandings as plot device. If that's something that bothers you, I sincerely apologize.

Porco is out of Colt’s room before any alarms ring, mainly because he couldn’t fall asleep. He finds himself standing in front of his own dorm room, wondering if Marcel spent the night.

Spent the…

Porco’s face turns beet red. It’s his own damned room, and he can’t bring himself to open it in fear of what he might find. What the hell, Marcel? Eren? Eren is your type? And yeah, Porco gets it. He likes taking care of Eren, too. And yeah, Eren can be pretty cute, especially when he’s offering to share candies and other sweets. But that’s it. That’s about the extent of Porco’s feelings.

He likes the way Eren relies on him. 

But last night, Marcel… he…

To make things very clear, Marcel isn’t such an airhead that he wouldn’t realize what kissing someone on the lips mean. No way. Not from all the shojo mangas he reads. And with Porco’s own love for romantic stories, there’s no way that Marcel doesn’t realize that…

Suddenly, Marcel’s behavior for the past few days are starting to click into place. The soft smiles on his face when he looks at Eren. The way he gracefully steps back to let Eren take the lead. The almost gentle way Marcel treats Eren. The way Marcel seems to take an extra interest whenever the topic is about Eren. 

It wasn’t just because Eren was someone new. It wasn’t just because Eren looked so helpless. It wasn’t just because of an experiment. It wasn’t just because Marcel felt bad about watching Levi beat Eren senseless yesterday. It wasn’t just because Marcel was a good guy who wanted to help out.

All of it was because Marcel…

The doorknob turns. 

That’s the only warning Porco has before Eren opens the door, a worried look on his face. When he sees Porco, he smiles in relief.

“You weren’t in bed, so I got worried,” he says. “What are you doing up so early?”

No sign of Marcel in the room. So Marcel didn’t spend the night? Then did he just want a kiss? Wait, now that Porco thinks about it, Eren was asleep, right? So Marcel probably just waited for a time when Eren was awake to…

Porco chokes.

“H-hey?! Are you alright?” Eren asks. 

He rubs soothing circles on Porco’s back, but it’s not helping. All Porco can think about is his brother and Eren and… Oh fuck, no. He does  _ not _ need to know about his brother’s sex life!

“Eren, do you…”

Porco at least manages to stop himself before he takes the plunge and asks something horrifically embarrassing. 

“Yeah? What is it?” Eren, this clueless dumbass, asks without realizing just how dangerous this topic is.

“I-it’s nothing,” Porco stutters out, feeling his cheeks heat up. He can’t meet Eren’s eyes. He hopes to god that this doesn’t look suspicious as it feels.

And to make sure that Eren realizes that this is a taboo subject, he forcibly pushes Eren away and walks into his room.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just tired. Let’s just… get going for the day.”

*

“Eren, good morning!” Marcel says, casually putting his arm around Eren’s shoulders.

“Good morning,” Eren tells him with a smile like nothing’s different. He even easily shrugs off the arm to greet everyone else, seemingly not noticing the way Marcel deflates.

Porco has half a mind to grab Eren and direct him back to Marcel, just to get rid of that expression. C’mon, Eren. Even if you have zero common sense, you can’t just treat someone who kissed you last night like… 

Wait. What if it’s all one-sided on Marcel’s part?

Porco didn’t even consider that because it’s Marcel. Marcel doesn’t do one-sided love. He’s… He’s way too manly and cool for that. But maybe because this is the first time Marcel has ever fallen in love (and Porco would know because he’s super good at reading his brother), Marcel is feeling too shy to confess his feelings? And that’s why he sneakily kissed Eren while he was asleep?!

Oh god, was his brother always such a gap moe?

“Is something wrong, Porco?” Eren asks, looking concerned.

“Huh? N-no. Nothing’s wrong. Why?”

“You’ve been… uh… staring at me a lot.”

“It’s nothing!” Porco all but snaps before rushing to the cafeteria. 

He ignores the way his cheeks flush red and the questions the other Warriors and Eren throws behind him. He doesn’t want to deal with any of that right now!

*

Marcel is so fucking obvious that this is painful.

Does no one else sees this? 

The way Marcel’s eyes soften when he turns to face Eren? The way he chuckles whenever Eren says something funny, even if it’s not directed towards him? The way Marcel leans just a little bit closer than strictly necessary towards Eren? The way Marcel’s hands seem to hover over Eren before drawing back quickly as if losing the nerve to go all the way? The way Marcel seems to positively beam when Eren’s eyes are on him?

Please! Porco cannot be the only one to have noticed this!

He feels like he might lose his mind, but everyone else eat their breakfast like nothing is wrong. Pieck is checking her phone, possibly to check the weather and then maybe read her favorite webtoon before the day begins. Annie’s brows are slightly furrowed as she reads the label of her yogurt smoothie (Did they change the brand again?). Bertolt has his head down and focused on his breakfast, either still half-asleep or quietly listening in. 

And okay, fine. They’re all socially awkward, so Porco can understand why these guys are clueless about the obvious romantic route that Marcel is on. 

But Porco expected better from Reiner, his fellow otaku.

Reiner seems to have come to terms with what happened yesterday, because he’s actively engaged in a conversation with Eren. He laughs boisterously and talks excitedly about who knows what, looking far too pleased with himself that makes Porco wants to shake him.

Stop it, Porco wants to yell. Let Marcel have his quiet moment with Eren, damn it!

Because Marcel’s smile is frozen on his face as he listens to the two talk. And yeah, that’s right. Reiner likes to copy Marcel in a lot of things, but copying his crush is something that Porco feels crosses a line.

Eren pauses in mid-sentence and glances curiously at Porco. Seeing that, Porco feels himself blushing as he quickly looks away. Reiner and Marcel both turn to look at Porco, and he realizes that he won’t be able to get away lightly this time around.

“Y-you have something on your cheek,” Porco lies in hopes of throwing them off.

It works.

“My face?” Eren asks as he quickly dusts his cheeks. “Did I get it?”

Marcel chuckles and gently touches Eren’s face to make Eren turn towards him. And this goddamn madman leans in and licks Eren’s (perfectly clean, by the way!) cheek and pulls back with a grin.

“I got it for you,” Marcel says, grinning like a cat.

Porco covers his mouth and just barely holds back a delirious scream. But the sudden movement rattles his food tray, catching everyone else’s attention all of a sudden. They all stare at Porco’s red face, follow his gaze to Marcel and Eren, and shrug before returning to what they were doing. No, you dumb socially inept idiots! Notice this crazy love story happening in front of them for once!!

Reiner tilts his head as if finally figuring something out. But Porco is pretty sure that this moron came to the wrong conclusion when he grins widely. 

“Thanks, Marcel,” Eren says nonchalantly as if it’s an every day normal thing for someone to fucking lick his face. 

Is he a brick? A statue? A doll? What the hell? Shouldn’t there be more reaction than a simple smile and thanks? Maybe a blush? Maybe holding his cheek that was licked and staring wide-eyed at Marcel like, “What the fuck? Just use a napkin?” 

Hey Eren, why doesn’t this bother you?!

But because Eren brushes off so smoothly, Porco can’t even bring himself to yell out. All he can do is wince in sympathy at the frozen look on Marcel’s face.

“By the way, Eren,” Reiner says, the grin still wide on his face. “You have to return the handkerchief to Mr. Levi today, right? Want to go to a cafe together once you’re done? There’s this really cute drink I really want to try, but I’m too self-conscious to go alone.”

Porco wants to punch Reiner. And from the way Marcel glares at Reiner, Porco doesn’t think he’s the only one.

“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll return it to him next week,” Eren says with a shrug.

“Eh? But he insisted it be returned today, didn’t he?”

Eren waves his hand in the air carelessly. “Mr. Levi has more handkerchiefs. And if he really needs one, his friends will be more than happy to lend him some. Besides, it feels too much like he’s trying to keep tabs on me, so I don’t want to go see him.”

Porco recalls Levi slamming Eren’s head against the table again and again. Yeah, he thinks. He doesn’t want to go see that man either.

“Then do you want to go to the cafe together? Just the two of us?”

Reiner, you asshole! How much must you push until you’re satisfied?!

“But wouldn’t it be more fun if we all go together?” Eren asks innocently. “Then we can buy a whole range of things to share!”

Porco opens his mouth and then closes it. He quickly ducks his head to try and stop himself from giggling. That’s right. If Eren is this clueless with Marcel, then of course, he’ll be just as clueless with Reiner!

“I… want to stay in today,” Pieck says.

Oh, has she been listening? For how long? And why did she wait until now to say something? 

Actually, Pieck’s smile looks uneasy. She keeps glancing at Marcel, who gives her a calm smile that doesn’t seem unfriendly but doesn’t feel like his usual smiles. Something happened between these two. Porco wonders if he should be uneasy.

“Yeah, I think it’s best I don’t skip anymore, too,” Eren adds, looking slightly depressed. 

“W-we can go after-”

Porco finally steps in by punching Reiner’s shoulder. “We are going to watch a movie, so back off.”

He just said whatever came to mind, but it should be obvious to Eren and Marcel that it’s a lie, right? So why are both of them staring at him like that?

“What?” he asks the two of them.

Eren flinches and quickly looks away, cheeks tinting red. Huh? Why is he blushing about this? He didn’t even blink twice at everything else!

Marcel, however, has a cold look on his face before he puts on a fake smile. “Nothing… creep.”

H-huh?! Why the hell is Porco the creep?

Last night made sense, since Porco is the one who walked in on… Wait a minute, that still doesn’t make any sense! It wasn’t like Porco wanted to see…  _ that. _ He just wanted to relax in his own dorm room. It’s not fair that Marcel is calling Porco the creep when Marcel’s the one current in a one-sided crush with Porco’s roommate!

Wait…

Porco glances at Eren, who refuses to meet his eyes. 

Does Eren also think that he’s a creep?! Is that why he’s blushing like that?

Just a little, Porco feels like he’s taken a direct hit from Annie.

 

*

 

Ever since finding Porco outside of their dorm room this morning, the guy has not stopped staring at Eren.

Okay, that’s probably not a completely fair assessment, since Porco does stop to glance at whoever is speaking or to greet others. But for the most part, Porco’s eyes seem to be locked on Eren, and it’s starting to make him really nervous.

“D-did you do something?” Eren’s seatmate asks with a low voice. “Porco’s glaring at you.”

“I… don’t think I did?” Eren admits uncertainly.

And yeah, on Monday, Porco also continued to stare at him like this. But… the gaze back then was… 

No, that’s not it.

The reason why Eren feels so fidgety and embarrassed when Porco stares at him isn’t because of that. It’s because when Marcel called Porco a “creep” this morning, Eren suddenly realized that the dream last night was not just a dream.

Last night, he vaguely remembers something softly pressing against his lips. Then there was something kind of like the door opening and… Marcel’s cold, “…like some kind of a creep… Porco, I thought I raised you better than that.”

He just chalked it up to him being more tired than usual from the stress of this mission and didn’t think twice of it. But coupled with the strange events of this morning like Porco being outside of the dorm room in the morning, Porco continuously staring at him with a blush on his face, Porco refusing to talk about what’s wrong when something is clearly wrong, Porco’s declaration that they’ll be watching a movie later together…

Doesn’t all of this lead to…?

No wonder Marcel was doing his best to play interference! He probably wanted both Porco and Eren to get along but wanted to do it in a tactical, gentle way. Because that’s just how classy of a guy he is. He probably wants Eren to look at Porco in a good light, even if he finds the whole situation uncomfortable. 

… It can’t be Marcel, huh?

Eren jerks at the thought.

Huh? Why did he just think…?

“Are you okay?” Eren’s seatmate asks as Eren’s blush darkens.

“I-I can’t do this!”

Eren bolts out of the classroom before anyone can stop him.

 

*

 

Zeke has been a teacher at Marley Private Institute for the Gifted for nearly three years now. Before that, he was a student here (a proud Warrior during his later years to boot, too). So he thinks he understands what these students are going through the best.

But every time he brings up the fact that he has office hours and that he is open to listening to anything, no matter how mundane, he receives uncomfortable and distrusting looks from the students.

Is it his lack of experience? 

He thought for sure that if he just grew out his beard like this, he would look a thousand times more mature than Magath and Calvi combined. And according to Yelena, he does. But none of the students look to him as more than anything but that “lame teacher who gives you easy A’s.”

It’s enough to make him feel depressed.

“Since you’re not doing anything important, here. Make some copies for my class,” Calvi had told him while carelessly handing Zeke a folder of tests. 

He can’t even claim that this is rookie abuse seeing that his office is completely devoid of any students while both Calvi and Magath (and even Willy, of all people!) seem to be busy. Is it because Zeke’s office is too comfy? But he just copied what Xaver used to have in his office: lego set for the students to play with, a bookshelf filled with friendly books, and a bunch of stuffed animals.

Should he try to get a potted plant? Maybe that’ll do the trick?

While thinking as such, he leaves his empty office to make photocopies.

And that’s when he sees it.

A young student running out of his classroom with his face covered. Crying? Is he crying? 

… A crying student running out of his classroom in the morning?

This student is clearly distressed and needs counseling!

Zeke feels himself beaming as he runs after the student.

“Hey!” He yells.

The student must not have heard, because he turns sharply around a corner. Zeke determinedly gives chase. He turns the corner and-

Almost collides with the student, who has curled up on the floor.

“W-whoa!” Zeke says as he struggles to catch his balance.

It doesn’t work as well as he hoped and he finds himself sprawled on the floor, Calvi’s tests scattered all around him.

“A-are you okay?” the student asks.

The student’s voice is quivering. His eyes are glistening with visible tears. This student is most definitely distressed and in need of guidance!

“I-I’m fine,” Zeke squeaks. He quickly clears his throat and scrambles to make himself look more reliable. “Are you alright? You look… uh…”

Oh no, he’s failing to look like a reliable human being!

The student ducks his head, clearly not wanting to talk.

“If you want, you can hide in my office,” Zeke offers.

Slowly, the student looks up at him with a scrutinizing look. Then he makes a small motion at the spilled tests. “Aren’t you busy?”

“I always have time for students!”

Zeke really hopes that didn’t come across as too enthusiastic. He just really wants to have a student in his office, okay? It’s nothing perverted or weird. He just wants to be a bona fide teacher! That’s all there is!

After a bit of a hesitation, the student nods.

“I’m Zeke Jaeger. Please feel free to call me Zeke.”

“I”m Eren J… Kruger. Eren Kruger.”

Kruger? Isn’t that the transfer student? Oh! Jackpots of all jackpots! Zeke gets to help the transfer student!

“Here, let me help you get these papers,” Eren says.

And he’s a sweetheart, too! 

Zeke feels like he took a true step forward to being a teacher today.

 

*

 

More so than an office, this place looks like a kid’s playground.

Eren isn’t sure if he’s allowed to say that as he stands awkwardly in Zeke’s office.

“Feel free to make yourself comfortable,” Zeke tells him. “I’m going to make some copies of these really fast and come back!”

And with that, Eren is left alone in his target’s office.

To think it would be this simple…

Well, the first thing Eren needs to do is to see if there are any documents that pertains back to his father. Eren walks over to Zeke’s desk and begins to rummage through all the papers there. Graded tests, graded homework, class roster…

There are two pictures on Zeke’s desk. One is of when Zeke is younger in Marley uniform with someone who might be Zeke’s father. The other is of Zeke when he’s much younger with…

A blonde woman that Eren has never met nor seen and a man whose face has been ripped off. Seeing that the man’s face in the picture where Zeke is older is intact but this one isn’t, Eren guesses that this is Zeke’s father that Zeke has an issue with. Then the other man might be a “father-figure” for Zeke instead.

But this isn’t good enough proof. 

The drawers on the desks all have locks. There’s no key tossed carelessly here. So despite how Zeke first came across, it seems he’s pretty careful.

There aren’t any security cameras in this room, just a motion sensor. But to get into this area, you had to enter through the teacher’s lounge, which had three different security cameras and two motion sensors in the hallways. On top of that, Zeke’s office doesn’t have any windows. That means he won’t be able to sneak in here through that. Then perhaps the ceiling tile…?

No, the ceiling looks too thin to properly be able to hold his weight.

That’s no good. Sneaking into this office is not an option. He needs to get all the information he needs without relying on breaking in.

How annoying. It looks like he’s going to have to earn Zeke’s trust. But can he really do that in the short time remaining? Well, it’s not like he has any choice. He’s risked too much to get this far. Armin’s dignity to walk into the store and buy all the makeup and wig, Mikasa’s chastity to none other than gross Jean, and his own pride to… 

A flash of Marcel’s smile rudely interrupts his thought.

His heartbeat speeds up, and he’s certain that he’s blushing as well. Damn it, Marcel! Right now is really not the time. Why the hell does he have to… Always be so…

Eren covers his face.

“You’re so bad for me.”

 

*

 

When Zeke returns to his office after giving Calvi the copies of the tests, he sees Eren playing with one of Zeke’s favorite dolls, the monkey. It makes him brighten at the sight. Since Zeke has become a teacher, he hasn’t had a lot of time to play with his toys. But it’s always nice to see his favorites still be loved in small ways like this.

“O-oh. Sorry,” Eren says as he quickly puts the monkey down.

“No, no. They’re there for you to play with,” Zeke tells him with a comforting smile. “Feel free.”

After hesitating for a bit, Eren picks the monkey back up and hugs it. Zeke wonders if it’ll be creepy to ask for a picture, because he really wants to commemorate the first student who came to his office.

“Is it okay for me to ask what was troubling you?”

Eren dips his head to the side. Is that a yes? Is that a no? Please, Zeke swears he’s not some creepy guy, but he’s not a mind reader, either. If Eren doesn’t explain himself, then Zeke won’t be able to figure it out.

Oh, what if this is a code? And Zeke has to crack it if he wants to reach level two of trust with students. Aha! This must be how you become a trustworthy teacher. Yes, that makes perfect sense!

"It's alright if you don't want to talk. I'm not going to pressure you."

That must have been the correct thing to say because Eren smiles gratefully.

"Uh… Mr. Zeke…"

"Yes?"

Eren hesitates, tightening his hold on the monkey doll. "I… I'm not a popular guy. People like Mikasa because she’s so cool, and they like Armin because he’s so smart and cute. But no one’s ever… expressed that they’re i-interested in me. L-like  _ that _ before. O-obviously, I’m talking outside of jokes and pranks.”

Oho! It's love trouble!

Zeke feels his own heartbeat race. Love! How wonderfully full of youth! Sure, he himself was too busy studying to become a Warrior to ever experience it. But he’s read all about it in  _ Idiot’s Guide to Helping Teenagers 101,  _ a book highly recommended by Xaver. Teenage love, if he remembers correctly (and of course, he is. It’s his favorite book), is brief and fleeting. There is no need to encourage it because it’ll only lead to tragedy. See Section 18.2 (b) for examples in popular media such as adaptations of  _ Romeo and Juliet. _

“I-I mean… I’m not stupid or anything. I know how you’re supposed to express yourself and all that. And I get the theory behind falling in love and crushes. But… i-it was never… me.”

“Do you want to experience it?” Zeke asks. 

Because that’s what Eren is trying to say, right? That he wants to have that normal high school experience as portrayed by pop culture? If it’s just that, then all Zeke has to do is assure Eren that everything is fine. He’s not broken for not feeling love at the young age of… whatever teenaged year Eren is. Look, Zeke is 25 and he still hasn’t fell in love! It’s totally natural!

Eren’s cheeks turn pink, and he seems to struggle to meet Zeke’s eye. His hold on the monkey doll seems almost like a lifeline.

“I’m… not sure? I mean, I never really cared all that about it. B-but last night, Porco he… I think he kissed me. I-I was half-asleep, though. So it’s possible that I imagined the whole thing. B-but if I’m imagining that my roommate kissed me, then I at least must have some kind of interest, right?”

“Not necessarily,” Zeke says. “It could be just your hormones. You feel close to your roommate. In order to try to process that, your mind imagined something like a kiss while trying to deal with your raging hormones as a teenager.”

“So it doesn’t actually mean anything?” Eren asks, voice uncertain yet hopeful.

Zeke feels like he should most definitely agree, just to reassure Eren. But he also doesn’t want to just jump to a conclusion. That wouldn’t be very mature of him.

“That depends on you, doesn’t it? Do you want it to mean something?” 

Eren relaxes as he considers that. Then with a smile, he sheepishly says, “No. Not with Porco, anyways.”

… But that means there’s someone that Eren does want to mean something to?

When Zeke asks, Eren flushes red. He stammers and hesitates, possibly because he doesn’t know how to put his feelings into words. And if that doesn’t say that Eren has never talked about these things with someone, Zeke doesn’t know what will. He feels so honored. To be the first person the transfer student opened up to! 

“P-promise me y-you won’t tell anyone?” Eren asks, peeking at Zeke with earnest eyes.

“I promise.”

Eren bites his lips for a second longer before he quietly says, “M-Marcel.”

Hm? Wait a second. Marcel? As in Marcel Galliard? The number one pick to be a Warrior every year? The very same guy that every teacher here hails as the top student? Wait! Doesn’t Marcel have a little brother? That’s right. Marcel’s brother’s name is… Porco, isn’t it?

Is Eren seriously caught up between the two Galliard brothers?

The transfer student, it turns out, moves quite fast. Zeke isn’t sure if he should be impressed or terrified.

“That uh… Marcel, huh?” Zeke says.

“I know!” Eren groans as he buries his blushing face against the monkey doll. “I know he’ll never look twice in my direction. He’s just naturally friendly like that to everyone. He’s the type of guy who doesn’t realize just how charming and handsome he is. And I absolutely hate that I fell for it!”

“Well, if you know he won’t go for you anyways, why not just go for Porco? He likes you, doesn’t he?”

Zeke doesn’t expect the cold look Eren levels him.

“Are you stupid?” Eren asks him.

It catches Zeke completely off-guard. Eren was just talking about his crush like a cute girl. And now he’s… glaring at Zeke? This makes no sense! What did Zeke say that disagreed with him so much?

“W-what do you mean?”

“Go for Porco? Why would I do that? I don’t have any romantic interest in him. That’d be cruel to someone who has done nothing but try his best to awkwardly help me.”

Zeke doesn’t understand.

“But he likes you. Why wouldn’t you want to be with someone who likes you than chase after someone who doesn’t notice you? It’ll be less heartache for you in the end.”

Eren shakes his head. “Because that’s dishonest.”

“Well, feelings are just chemicals in the brain. If you repeat that you like Porco to yourself enough times, you’ll start to actually feel-”

“That’s not how it works!” Eren snaps. 

“Sure, it does,” Zeke says. “It’s just simple biology. We as humans are easily susceptible to words. For example, if you repeat to yourself that you succeed in life - some people call it ‘visualizing’ - then you will find yourself suddenly doing well. Likewise, the opposite can be true. By constantly hearing negative things, even if it’s not you yourself that said it, it can-”

He doesn’t expect for his monkey doll to be thrown at his face. 

Eren’s body is tense, looking quite like a spring that’s been compressed much too tightly. His eyes are a vicious green that somehow feels like an inferno threatening to consume everything in his path. It’s terrifying. Zeke has faced against anger before, but nothing this… pure, this  _ scathing. _

“Why did you become a teacher? To ‘control’ students?” Eren asks, his voice barely above a whisper. It seems that he is struggling to keep his anger from exploding out.

It makes no sense to Zeke.

Why is Eren so mad? Is this topic even something to get mad about? It’s just logic, isn’t it? There’s nothing to get mad about. This is just how the world is. For Eren to not realize that, shows exactly how young and naive he is. But Zeke supposes that as a teacher, it is his duty to guide Eren forward.

“I want to help as many children as I can. Just like Mr. Xaver did for me.”

Eren stays quiet as if giving Zeke an extra chance to continue to explain himself. That’s a good sign. That means that despite looking so angry, he’s willing to listen to Zeke. 

“I… didn’t have the most pleasant of pasts. It’s not quite as tragic as something in movies, but it’s not something that I believe anyone else should experience. When I was having a tough time, Mr. Xaver was there for me. I want to be able to do something like that for as many kids as that wants it.”

“And what exactly does that mean to you? Talking at them until they become completely brainwashed by everything that comes out of your mouth? Yeah, what a great idea! Having a bunch of naive kids who blindly follow your words bolsters your ego quite a lot, doesn’t it?”

Zeke frowns. “That’s not what I mean. But if doing so means I can save those kids from awful parents, then it’s the least I can do isn’t it?”

The temperature in the room suddenly feels cold. How is it that without saying a single word, Eren can make Zeke shiver?

Then…

“You’re just like dad.”

That’s it.

That’s all Eren says.

He stands up and leaves Zeke’s office, leaving Zeke frozen in spot.

Because huh? Dad? Eren means his own dad, right? This mysterious “Mr. Kruger” that his mother divorced? Right?

After a second longer of being frozen, Zeke goes to talk to Yelena, the receptionist who was also three years his junior when he attended this school.

“Can you give me all the files on the transfer kid?”

 

*

 

Today’s class for once was fun.

But Bertolt feels that he might be the only one to have thought that. Because today’s exam was only 1000 questions on history and geology. Of course, there were some linguistics and culture questions snuck in. But if you know enough of the history of the area, then all of that should come naturally.

Since it’s Bertolt’s area of specialty, he was able to finish early. He says that, but usually Marcel finishes earlier than him, especially if it’s something simple like 1000 questions. But it seems that Marcel isn’t feeling well today, because Bertolt is the first to hand in his test.

And with that finished, Bertolt excused himself from the class to go to his favorite place in the world, the shooting range.

It’s only because of that that he sees Eren. 

His good mood feels like it became even better. He feels a smile creeping on his face, and he raises his hand to wave at Eren.

Then he sees those eyes.

The vicious green of pure rage.

Bertolt’s knees give out. He finds himself collapsed to the ground, trembling in fear. He was wrong. He was so damned wrong for trusting those eyes. He should’ve known. He can never be forgiven. What he did was completely, irreversibly unapologizable. He knows that. He  _ knows that.  _

But he allowed himself to be fooled. He let himself be tricked, because that was easier than to face what he did. It was simpler, more soothing, to believe that Eren would ever-

“You alright, Bertolt? Did you trip?” Eren asks.

Those eyes aren’t filled with anger.

Did Bertolt make a mistake? No, he knows what he saw. Eren’s eyes were filled with anger. It was the same pair of eyes that haunts Bertolt as the owner of those eyes always promises a painful death. He’s seen those eyes too often to make that mistake.

“You… l-looked angry…”

Eren looks ashamed as he averts his eyes. “I just had a really unpleasant talk with Zeke.”

So it’s not because of Bertolt? It’s not because Eren can't forgive him? It has nothing to do with that?

“Hm? Don’t be silly, Bertolt. Why would I get mad at you for?” Eren asks with a chuckle. 

It’s so off-handed for him, isn’t it? Something that he doesn’t even have to think about. But for Bertolt, it means the world.

“But… if you ever do get mad at me, then…”

_ I don’t mind if you… _

“Then we’ll deal with it like normal friends,” Eren says with a shrug. “We’ll play a game or something until we cool down. Then we can talk it over like civilized beings.”

“Do you… want to come with me to the shooting range?”

 

*

 

Eren loses track of how long they’re there for, firing rounds after rounds at the targets. Bertolt said something about the teachers being off-duty because it’s class times, but he wasn’t paying too much attention to that. 

Right now, he just wants to focus on this. 

Ignore his conversation with Zeke. Ignore the reason why he’s here. Ignore everything.

Just shoot.

_ “But dad, where are you going?” _

_ “It’s a… medical conference. Boring things, really.” _

And when Eren was old enough, he started to match the days his dad went off to whatever medical conferences can possibly exist. And do you know exactly how many of those days matched? Exactly five of the hundreds of trips Grisha took. So he contacted the hospital that his dad worked at. Lo and behold, it turns out that his dad has been taking a lot of “vacation” days.

“For his next medical research paper.”

His dad’s lies do not match up.

That’s the first time Eren realized that something more was going on. And that was when he was ten.

The frustration at the pit of his stomach just won’t cool off. This isn’t helping. 

With a soft sigh, he decides to stop shooting for now. He turns to return the gun and realizes that Bertolt has been watching him shoot for a while now. Pulling down his earmuffs, he motions for Bertolt to do the same.

“How’s my form?” he asks with a cheeky grin.

Bertolt smiles softly. “It looks good. I’m still shocked that this is your… second time now?”

“Yeah. Second time. I’m telling you, man, those arcade games are great for training.”

At the very least Bertolt is chuckling and not looking like he’s about to have a panic attack. Eren doesn’t think his anger has cooled off enough to be able to calmly talk Bertolt down right now. 

“Are you done?” he asks, motioning at the fact that Bertolt is casually hanging out in this lane.

Huh? Just now. Bertolt hid something behind his back, didn’t he? What was he going to do? Hit Eren while he was distracted? No, that doesn’t sound like something a guy with frequent panic attacks will do. Especially not against a guy holding a rifle in his hands.

“Yeah. And… I-I wanted to watch you.”

Is Bertolt worried that Eren might steal his spot in the shooting range? There’s no need to worry about that. Eren’s planning on leaving soon anyways. Then again, he supposes Bertolt wouldn’t know about that. 

“Hey Bertolt, can I ask a really weird question?”

“S-sure. Go right on ahead.”

“Do you think it’s better to like someone who will never like you back? Or to be with someone that you know you will never like back?”

Bertolt opens his mouth and then shuts it quickly. He tilts his head to the side, brows furrowing as he seriously thinks about the answer to this question.

“I… even if I’m never liked back, I would rather be with someone that I like,” Bertolt decides. Then a little hesitantly, he adds, “Is… this about you and Porco this morning?”

Did everyone notice? 

Eren nods, feeling his cheeks redden. “I-I tried to talk to Zeke about it, and he had nothing useful to say.”

“Yeah, he’s not uh… someone I’d trust with t-things like that.” Bertolt dips his head slightly as if to apologize for Zeke.

Eren feels that Bertolt is too nice of a guy.

“Do you… l-like Porco?” Bertolt asks anxiously.

Oh? Could it be? Does Bertolt like Porco? Then Eren better quickly reassure him that it’s nothing like that.

“No. I like Marcel.”

Bertolt freezes for a second before nodding with a soft smile. “Yeah. Marcel’s a great guy.”

“Yeah, too great. He’s too good to ever look my way.” Eren sighs. “Can I tell you something that’s… not really a secret, but not really something I tell people?”

“What is it?” Bertolt seems to straighten as he leans in. His eyes are bright as if he’s truly excited about this “secret” that Eren is about to share. Faintly, Eren notices that Bertolt hides whatever it is that he had been hiding behind him inside of his pocket. So whatever it was, it was small enough to fit in a pocket, huh? But if Bertolt doesn't want Eren to know about it, he supposes he can pretend.

“I’m not exactly a ‘good’ person. I’ve done my share of some really awful things. My answer to a lot of problem is violence. And when I make up my mind, I rarely change it. Someone like me… isn’t suited for a well-kept cat like Marcel.”

Bertolt nods along but then pauses when Eren gets to his last point. 

“I disagree,” Bertolt says, surprising Eren. “Yes, Marcel is a good person. But he’s not such a well-kept cat that he needs to be coddled like that. He’s not the type of person to shy away from someone who meets him head-on. Eren, don’t run.”

It feels too much like he’s been completely exposed. Possibly without meaning to, Eren wanted to run from all of this. After all, he doesn’t have long to stay here. It’ll be easy enough to drag this along for as long as needed and then walk away from everything. Pretend it never happened. Go back to his old life without ever worrying about anyone from Marley again.

But when Bertolt looks at him straight in the eyes like this and tells him to not run, it’s impossible to not obey.

“Pft… Hey Bertolt, aren’t you way too cool right now?”

He expected the blush on Bertolt’s face and that shy dip of the head. But he doesn’t expect for Bertolt to peek at Eren with a small grin and say, “Did you just notice how cool I am?”

The two of them burst out laughing. Bertolt looks a little awkward, rubbing the back of his neck, but his smile at least look sincere.

“That’s a bit cringey, isn’t it?”

“Nah! My heart definitely skipped a beat. Keep at it and you’ll definitely be able to woo Porco!”

Bertolt pauses for a second before his eyes widen in alarm. But before he can say anything the doors to the shooting range open with people that Eren hasn’t met before. It looks like the Warriors of other years are here to use the shooting range.

“It should be around lunch time, right? Then shall we get going?”

 

*

 

Porco should have realized that something is wrong when Eren and Bertolt walks in to the cafeteria, giggling together. But as it is, he’s a little more pissed that Eren just ran out of the classroom like that, making this the third day in a row that he skipped class. And yeah, he suspected that Eren wasn’t exactly a good student from his implication that he skipped classes often at the arcade. But he didn’t think it’d be this bad.

“Hey!” he yells, a little more aggressive than he meant. He grabs Eren by the arm to drag him out but is immediately stopped by Marcel.

With a chilling smile, Marcel says, “My, Porco. You seem mighty mad about something. Care to share?”

Bertolt looks startled as he tries to hide behind Eren. If Eren was as big as Reiner, this might work out better. But with how things are, Bertolt just looks awkward as he tries to make himself look as small as possible.

Eren doesn’t seem to mind as he gently touches Marcel’s shoulder.

“Thanks, but this is something I need to talk to Porco about.”

It’s only because Eren turns to face Porco that he misses the distress on Marcel’s face. Right. After talk of school, Porco should really clarify what’s happening between these two. Honestly, his brother can be such a clueless idiot. And for once, it’ll be Porco who gets to help Marcel.

“Porco, I’m really sorry, but I can’t return your feelings,” Eren says, daring to look straight into Porco’s eyes.

And… huh?

HUH?!

Porco freezes. What the hell is this guy talking about? What feelings?!  _ What fucking feelings?! _ Does he realize what he’s saying? Does he know what kind of horrific expression Marcel is making at Porco right now?! Stop it! Stop it! His relationship with his brother is going to be completely unmendable at this rate!

“I like someone else,” Eren continues, completely unaware of what’s happening around him. “That person will never look twice in my direction, but I like them regardless. That’s why I can’t return your feelings.”

“You like…?” Porco can’t help but to stare at Bertolt who is still hiding behind Eren. 

No way, right?

Marcel’s luck isn’t that shitty?

“I like someone else,” Eren repeats. His eyes are soft, apologetic. 

There’s a few things that Porco can do right now. He can deny any feelings for Eren, which will doubtlessly make everyone here think he’s trying to cover up his feelings and possibly get Pieck involved. He can honestly tell Eren that he has no idea what this guy is talking about, but from the dark expression on Marcel’s face, he doesn’t think that’s going to fly. Which really only leaves one option.

Be a graceful loser.

“Is that so? Well, thanks for being honest.”

There. He’s cool. No one’s going to tease him about this because it’ll be a “sore” topic for him. And they can finally move the fuck on.

Eren’s shoulders drop in relief. “I’m glad you’re so chill about it. Because you kissed me last night, I thought it’d be a lot more awkward.”

…

If this is some kind of a cruel prank, Porco is going to kill whoever came up with it. 

“H-huh?! K-k-kiss?!”

What the fuck is this guy talking about? The only one who kissed him last night is… 

Porco stares in disbelief at Marcel, who doesn’t seem to have put it together. Instead, Marcel is glaring at Porco like they’re some sort of enemies, and Porco swears this is all just a horrible misunderstanding. If Eren will just shut the fuck up so Porco can explain himself, he’d really appreciate it!

Eren dares to blush and look at the ground. “I-it was… m-my first kiss…”

You know what? Fuck this.

Porco grabs Eren by the shoulders and look at him seriously. He ignores the small yelp from Bertolt as Bertolt takes a step away. He ignores the doubtless glare Marcel is shooting him. And he most definitely ignore the fact that the majority of the people in the cafeteria must be watching them. 

“I didn’t kiss you last night, you dumbass. That was Marcel.”

And it looks like things have finally clicked in Marcel’s brain, because his face turns beet red. The glares he was shooting Porco has melted into apologetic ones, so at least that part’s clear. Now, all Porco has to do is deal with-

“H-huh? M-Marcel…? W-what are you talking about? W-w-why would M-M-Marcel k-kiss…?”

It kind of looks like Eren’s brain might be fried, because Porco swears there’s steam coming out of his ears. It suits how red Eren is turning.

“Because he-”

Marcel stops Porco from speaking by covering his mouth. “Please let me say my own feelings.”

Porco nods and releases Eren. He takes a few steps back as Marcel steps up nervously to Eren. And now that Porco is paying attention, he realizes that most definitely, everyone is watching. When Porco scowls at them, they all pretend to be more interested in their food.

“E-Eren, the truth is… I… I like you. Last night, I went to yours and Porco’s room to talk to you. Porco left to get notes from Colt, and you were asleep. Seeing you like that, it finally clicked for me. I like you. I was going to properly court you starting today. But I… uh… c-couldn’t resist a kiss. I-I know that was really rude of me and… Uh… E-Eren? Are you listening?”

But Eren looks like his brain has completely shut down. He’s staring blankly at Marcel, even though the blush from before hasn’t lessened any. 

“I… see… haha… i-it was… Marcel…”

Looking quite like a frightened cat, Eren turns tail and bolts out of the cafeteria.

Marcel freezes at the sight, but there’s no time for that. Porco shoves him from behind.

“Go! Chase him, you dolt!”

“R-right!”

And the two troublemakers are out of the cafeteria, not realizing just how much clean up Porco is going to have to do.

Taking a deep breath, Porco turns to the rest of the people in the cafeteria.

“Don’t spread today’s incident around in rumors until Marcel hears a yes,” he growls at them.

He gets the feeling that the rumors have already circulated, though. It’s a bit irksome, but he supposes that’ll have to do. He doesn’t know who this person that Eren might like. But if it’s Marcel, he’ll be able to woo Eren no matter what.

“I’m… glad that you’re on their side,” Bertolt says softly. He keeps his head bowed so that he doesn’t accidentally sees Porco’s eyes.

“Well, what can I do? They’re both important to me.”

Bertolt seems to pause for a second before nodding. “Yeah, me too.”

Porco feels like he’s heard something really important. But he’s not such a good person like Marcel to be excited about Bertolt reaching out. Don’t get him wrong. It is a good thing or whatever. But he’s just never been all that invested.

“Whatever, let’s get some food.”

There’s a beat of silence before Bertolt hesitantly adds, “Porco, I’m sorry, but I don’t feel the same-”

“Shut up! If this becomes a fad to reject me, I’m going to kick you until you can’t walk!”

Bertolt flinches, which makes Porco think that maybe this guy didn’t mean to say that in a joking kind of way. Actually, now that he thinks about it, Bertolt’s really not that kind of a guy. He shouldn’t have reacted like that.

An apology is half-way out of his mouth when Reiner grabs Porco’s shoulder with a scowl.

“Don’t bully Bertolt,” he growls.

Porco really wants to know why the world seems determined to turn him into the butt of a joke.

 

*

 

Marcel catches up to Eren in no time flat. And Eren has always thought that he was a pretty fast runner (not compared to Mikasa, of course), but he’s starting to wonder if maybe he’s just average when it comes to speed.

Instead of stopping Eren to demand answers, Marcel easily grabs Eren’s hand and leads him back to the dorms.

He finds himself sitting on his bed in his dorm room, staring at Marcel, who pulls Porco’s chair from his desk to sit in front of him. The door has been locked, even though Eren’s sure no one will be bothering them.

“Did it upset you that much that I like you?” Marcel asks, his voice soft.

Eren shakes his head. “N-no. I’m not upset. I… I’m flustered. I… don’t know how to react. I’ve never liked someone or been liked by someone before. It’s confusing.”

“I never liked someone before either,” Marcel admits with a grin. “All those fluttery romance stories that Porco likes so much never made much sense to me. It seemed too much like fairy tales. How can something like that really exist? But… these butterflies in my chest seem to differ.”

How the hell does Marcel say something that cheesy with such smoothness? Eren is in awe. He still feels way too flustered to face Marce fully.

“Were you also this flustered when you thought Porco liked you?”

Eren nods. “B-but it’s different. Since… since I l-like you back.”

There’s a stunned silence, and Eren realizes belatedly that he never actually said who he likes to Marcel.

Marcel’s cheeks are red as his lips look like they’re having a hard time deciding whether to laugh or not. It’s a ridiculous expression that Eren can’t help but to giggle.

“D-don’t laugh,” Marcel grumbles, covering his mouth. “Ugh. I become so uncool when it’s in front of you.”

“I don’t need you to be cool, Marcel. I just need you.”

Eren realizes a second too late that that came out a lot more strongly than he intended. He stammers, trying to explain himself, but it seems that it’s Marcel’s turn to giggle at him.

“We’re a mess,” Marcel says between giggles.

“But at least we’re a happy mess.”

The two let soft laughter fill the space between them. It’s more comfortable than Eren thought he’ll ever feel with any of the private school kids. Of everything that could have possibly have happened in a week, why did it have to be falling in love with someone like Marcel?

“Eren,” Marcel says, a sheepish smile on his face. “I like you.”

It’s such a simple thing to say, but Eren feels like his heart won’t calm down.

“I-I like you, too,” he manages out.

“I want to know everything there is to know about you. Things that make you happy, things that make you sad. The things you’ve experienced that makes you who you are. I want to meet your friends from public school. I want to… to be an expert when it comes to you. Is that… weird?”

Yes, it’s weird as hell! Especially since that’s also how Eren feels about Marcel.

“C-can you not read my mind?” he grumbles.

Marcel flushes a cute pink at those words. “Hehe… You too, huh?”

But… to know everything about each other, huh?

Is it really okay? To tell Marcel everything? The real reason that he’s here. The truth that he’ll only be here until Friday at the latest. Is it really okay to trust Marcel about this topic secret mission of his?

“Eren?” Marcel asks, looking nervous. “Is everything alright?”

“T-the truth is, I’m not Eren Kruger. My real name is Eren Jaeger…”

 

*

 

On a brief skim, there is nothing wrong with the file for “Eren Kruger,” their transfer student.

But Zeke used to be a Warrior who specialized in law before he decided to become a teacher. He knows how to spot things that are contradictory and just plain wrong. On top of that, a search for “Eren Kruger” returns an obscure author that Zeke faintly recalls Grisha really liked.

He really doesn’t want to do this, but he finds himself looking up “Grisha Jaeger” on the web.

The top few searches are of the medical researches his father published. Then there’s a link to his father’s current workplace, a general hospital. And there, Zeke finds it.

He assumes it was an overeager intern who wrote a small blurb of profile for each of the doctors, nurses, and staff members, because there’s an excited, “Congratulations on your son Eren’s full recovery!” written at the end of Grisha’s. 

… “Eren,” huh?

“You’re just like dad,” Eren said.

This kid doubtlessly disguised himself as someone else to meet Zeke on purpose.

This kid…

Is without a doubt, Zeke’s younger brother.

Zeke’s…

He finds himself burying his face in his hands, torn between squealing in excitement and crying because Eren stormed out looking so angry. But if this really is his baby brother like all evidence is pointing to be, then Zeke can’t just sit around and pretend to be dumb.

He needs to talk to Marcel and Porco.

 

*

 

Marcel stays quiet for a bit longer after Eren finishes speaking. Then he takes a deep breath.

“Okay,” he says. “That was a lot to take in, but it explains a lot. I was wondering why only an old author popped up when I looked up your name on the web.”

“Eren Kruger is a real person?” 

For now, Marcel decides to ignore that. “So we only have until tomorrow to prove that your old man cheated… But considering both Zeke’s and your ages, doesn’t it make more sense that your dad cheated on Zeke’s mom for yours?”

There’s a conflicted emotion on Eren’s face as he nods. “Yeah. I’m aware. I just don’t know if my mom knows.”

Marcel’s hand gently caresses Eren’s cheek before he can stop himself. Eren glances at him curiously but leans in to the touch anyways. Maybe it’s not a bad thing to stop himself when it comes to touching Eren.

“The best thing to do right now will be to set up a trap for Zeke,” Marcel suggests.

“What kind of a trap?”

*

Marcel thought for sure that they won’t be able to do anything until after dinner, which is why he suggested that the two of them grab lunch before it got any later. And because Eren insisted that they shouldn’t skip their chosen area of study, Marcel finds himself in the boring engineering room with Reiner.

He would much rather spend some more time with Eren.

To think that it would be this easy to change his entire life with just a single moment. Oh, that’s right. He should definitely make sure to thank Porco for-

The door to the engineering room slams open. Porco stands there with a scowl on his face. When his eyes meet Marcel, he marches up to his brother and headbutts him without mercy. The teacher stares for a second longer before sighing and returning to the lecture as if Porco isn’t there. 

“Did you or did you not solve this shit between you and Eren?” he growls.

“W-we solved it…?” Marcel holds his head, because damn it, Porco. What the hell is your head made out of?!

“Then why the hell did I get a stern talking to by fucking Zeke, of all people?”

Zeke…? Marcel frowns. Can it be that Eren wasn’t as careful as they thought? Or is this because Zeke used to be a Warrior himself? Did he already get to the truth of the situation? Then…

“Then shall we get a little revenge on Zeke?” Marcel asks with an innocent grin.

Porco furrows his brows. “Whatever you’re planning, I don’t want-”

“I’ll explain more on the way. Reiner, grab Annie and Bertolt. Porco and I’ll get Pieck and Eren. Oh. Hey teacher, if you don’t see Zeke for a while, please conveniently forget about this conversation, okay?”

“There’s something called abusing your position as a Warrior,” Porco complains.

But he doesn’t even roll his eyes when Marcel picks up a long wrench.

“I don’t know what you mean!”

 

*

 

The last thing Zeke remembers is Marcel’s frozen smile when Zeke told him that Eren likes him so could he please pretend to like Eren back? And now, he seems to be tied up in some kind of a dark shed somewhere while someone (it sounds like Pieck, actually) lectures some unknown number of assailants (Zeke is going to assume that it’s the rest of the Warriors and Porco).

“… would just think! Why are all of you so damned stupid?!”

“This wasn’t part of the plan,” comes the response from Marcel, who sounds equally panicked and frustrated. 

At the very least, Zeke doesn’t think that he’s bleeding or anything. He does feel a dull throb in his head. So it’s possible that someone struck him. But the question is why.

What does the Warriors have to gain to do this?

“Oh, you’re awake.”

Eren.

Zeke turns to see his little brother, who thankfully look nothing like their dad. And now that he thinks about it, Eren's quite a cute kid, isn't he? Marcel should be thankful that someone as cute and adorable as Eren likes him! Ugh. Why couldn't Eren like Porco instead? That way, he'll be liked back by someone who likes him just as much-

“S-sorry about your head,” Eren tells him with an apologetic dip of the head. “We weren’t trying to hit you. Just threaten you to go along with us. But uh… M-my hands… slipped. Y-yeah. Let's go with that. If it makes you feel any better, I bandaged your head.”

Oh, is that all? Zeke finds himself relaxing for a second before those words actually sink in. 

“Threaten me? Why?” he asks.

“I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Eren repeats.

Zeke nods. “Okay, but you still haven’t answered my question."

Eren seems to glance at the other Warriors, looking like he isn’t sure what to say. Marcel makes a small motion for him to go on. That seems to encourage Eren somewhat.

“The truth is that I’m not actually Eren Kruger. I’m-”

“I know. You’re Grisha Jaeger’s son. In other words, my half-brother.”

The look on Eren’s face freezes. “You… knew?”

“After you were in my office, I looked up your files. There were just enough holes for me to realize the truth. Did you… did you do all of this in hopes of…? M-meeting me?”

“Don’t blush. It’s creepy,” Eren snaps. “B-but yeah. This uh… ended up into quite a mess, huh?”

Zeke’s heart feels warm. His brother! His little brother went out of his way to meet him! All because he was curious about him! How did his little brother even find out about him? No, no. That’s not all that important. What’s important is that Zeke gets back the lost years of having a brother! And to think that Zeke was satisfied with the transfer student being the first student to ever trust him enough to open up to him! Now, he gets the additional honor that Eren wants to know his brother as much as Zeke does!

“Eren, I know you haven’t paid for the full tuition, because I imagine it’s expensive. But if you want, I can cover the whole thing. You can stay here for more than just this week! Wouldn’t that be great? You can be with Marcel and Porco and… the rest of your friends!”

“I…”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Earlier that day…_
> 
> Mikasa’s fist slams into Floch’s locker, denting it. Floch does his absolute best to not tremble in fear before her.
> 
> “Hey,” she says, her voice an octave lower than a threat. “Where did you get this picture of Eren?”
> 
> Floch opens his mouth and then shuts it quickly. Her eyes promise his imminent death as she leans in closer than strictly necessary. No matter what he says (or doesn’t say), she’s going to kill him.
> 
> “I-I only have this. B-but if you want, y-you can have it,” he squeaks.
> 
> She beams and retreats to a normal distance, marveling at the beautiful picture of Eren in the private school uniform. Floch lets out a breath of relief. Thank god he made so many copies-
> 
> “If there’s just only that copy, then why do you have another picture of it in your locker?” Armin asks.
> 
> Despite the sweet smile on his face, it’s clear that he’s looking down on Floch as someone less than a vermin.
> 
> Floch stares at the two and hopes that death claims him quick.


	7. Day 6 - Friday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh... hahaha.... The original plan was actually to have the whole Zeke reveal and Eren and Marcel get together happen in this chapter. But then Porco smacked the plans out of my hands and yelled at Marcel to "Go! Go! Go!" 
> 
> So uh... this chapter became... malnourished. Please forgive its brevity and lack of humor.

Waking up in his bed again after spending nearly a week in a dorm is such a strange yet wonderful feeling.

If there’s only thing that Eren finds distasteful, it’s Jean.

Instead of going home yesterday night when Eren snuck into his own room by climbing the tree next to his bedroom on the second floor and climbing in through the window, Jean has opted to stay ("You're back! You're back!!" "Yes, I am. But why are you hugging me? J-Jean? Why are you crying?!"). Eren honestly doesn’t get this guy. Doesn’t he want to go home? Doesn’t he want to spend the night in his own fluffy bed?

And so Eren finds Jean uncomfortably kicking him in the face come morning.

How the hell did this guy end up upside down on the bed anyways?

“Get off,” he grumbles as he pushes Jean off the bed. 

He doesn’t know how, but Jean manages to sleep through all of that. It makes him want to step on Jean, just to see if that will shock the guy awake. Not that he would, obviously. That would make him no better than Jean.

With a soft sigh, he sits up on his bed. Because Jean fell asleep clutching to Eren like that last night, Eren had no choice but to uncomfortably go to sleep like that. He didn’t even get to wash up or anything. Ugh. He feels gross. But he couldn’t, for the life of him, find it in his heart to push Jean off. 

Just what the hell happened for this guy to react like that anyways?

“Eren 2.0, it’s time to wake…” 

… The what now?

Carla is frozen by the doorway of his room, staring at him with wide-eyes. She covers her mouth slowly and then…

“Oh, you stupid child! I honestly can’t figure out where you get this from! I told you to stop making work for everyone around you and the first thing you do is run off to a private school? Poor Jean here was exhausted pretending to be you!”

She marches over to the bed and pulls on Eren’s ear, much to his embarrassment. 

“Ow! Ow! Mom! Let me explain!”

“You lost your chance to explain when you ran away! Why do you never  _ think _ about these things? Did you really believe that I wouldn’t tell you what’s happening if you asked me? Do you have that little faith in me? It’s fine if you don’t believe your dad, since he’s never here anyways. But I’m honestly hurt that you didn’t even take into my feelings into account before you recklessly did this!”

Although Eren understands how she came to that conclusion, he finds it horribly unfair of her to say that. If he had ever brought up even the idea that his dad might be cheating without any kind of evidence, Carla would have just been hurt. In order to prevent that, Eren came up with this convoluted plan. It’s not just a selfish whim of his (sort of).

“Do you know how worried I was?” 

All protest die on Eren’s tongue at that single question. His eyes begin to water. That’s not fair either.

“M-mom, I’m really sorry. And I’m sure you don’t want to hear this right now, but uh… you’re kind of stepping on Jean.”

*

His mom must really be angry.

After pouring a generous amount of chocolate syrup on Jean’s pancakes, she gives Eren a plate with a single uncooked onion.

“I mean, it’s not like you need me to cook for you or anything, right?” she says with a sweet smile.

Jean dares to give Eren a pitying scoff. Eren should’ve shoved him off the bed harder. 

“Whatever,” Eren grumbles. 

He picks up the onion and heads to the counter. If they think that he can’t do something like make himself breakfast, then they have another thing coming.

“What are you doing?” his mom asks, sounding baffled.

“Making breakfast.”

She opens her mouth and then covers it with her hand. It’s clear that she’s doing her absolute best to not laugh outright at him. What? What is he doing that’s so wrong?

“My boy has become so independent after returning from private school,” she giggles.

He feels his cheeks flush. “I was always this resourceful, mom.”

The sound of the doorbell ringing catches their attention.

“I’ll get it,” Jean volunteers.

Somehow, this guy seems to have settled into Eren’s home comfortably. Eren isn’t sure how he should feel about that. They should kick him out, right? Before even Eren becomes comfortable with this guy hanging out?

“Oh, good mo-”

Whatever else Jean wanted to say is lost forever. 

Eren hears loud footfalls of someone running and then feels Mikasa’s arms wrap around him from the back.

“H-huh? Oh, morning, Mikasa. Careful, I’m peeling an onion.”

Just few steps behind is Armin, who looks like he also wants a hug but is refraining because of Mikasa. Instead, he gives Eren a tearful smile.

“That onion is really… strong. Haha… it’s m-making me cry,” Armin says as he wipes his eyes.

“Guys, I was literally only away for a few days. Why are you like this?”

“Was it really just a few days? It felt like years…”

There’s a far away look in Armin’s eyes. Eren honestly worries about what happened in the short time that he was away.

“Did you… g-get what you wanted?” Mikasa asks, still not letting Eren go.

Her voice is slightly quivering. No seriously, just what happened while he was gone for both of them to be crying at the sight of him?

“Sort of…? I’ll tell you guys more later. Mom, let’s talk about our family when I get back.”

Carla nods. “Yes, I suppose that’s long overdue.”

*

In the end, he decides to go to school (“Jean, I’m begging you. Please take off the wig and make up.”). He should probably stop by Levi’s place after school to return the handkerchief, too. 

“Oh, mom, I’m going to bring home my boyfriend for brunch tomorrow before our date. Please don’t forget!”

“Huh…? W-wait-”

Eren waves his mom goodbye and walks towards school with his friends. Few seconds later, both Armin and Jean shoot him a worried look.

“Uh… t-that was a joke, right?” Jean asks. “You just said that to make your mom panic, right?”

Eren frowns. It’s unusual for Jean to care… Is this because he’s upset that Eren is the first among their group to start dating? Hah! Take that Jean. You’re actually not cool at all!

“Y-yeah. It has to be a joke… Haha… R-right, Eren? Y-you just wanted to surprise her?” Armin asks, his eyes keep shifting to the side as if he’s watching something beside Eren.

“T-there’s no way that you’d have met someone and started dating them in less than a week! Y-you’re not… some sort of a… slut or something!” Jean continues, laughing nervously.

What are both of them staring at? Because when Eren turns to look, all he sees is Mikasa looking back at him curiously.

“It’s not a joke,” Eren tells them firmly. “Marcel’s a really cool guy. I’ll introduce you if you guys drop by for brunch… That invitation isn’t for you, Jean.”

“Oh, come on!” Jean says at the same time Armin says, “Maybe you should reconsider that, Eren!”

“Reconsider what? I thought you guys would want to meet him. Or do you mean Jean’s invitation?”

Eren feels confused by the horrified expressions on both Jean’s and Armin’s faces. What? Did Eren say something weird? Why do they keep making faces at him?

“Yes, reconsider Jean’s invitation,” Mikasa says. She grabs Eren by the shoulders. “The Lesser Eren and I will accompany you as… as a double date!”

“The ‘Lesser…?’” 

But Eren doesn’t get to finish that. 

Mikasa nods vehemently. “And Armin will come to chaperon. This person has got to mean you harm. Until he can pass both mine and Armin’s tests, I refuse to allow him to spend any second alone with you!”

There Mikasa goes again, being unreasonably overprotective. Jeesh, why must everyone around Eren be like this? Or maybe this is something that runs in the Ackerman family? Levi is like this, too. And look, Eren gets that he’s not as physically strong as either Levi or Mikasa and that if Armin ever gets someone special, those two will be just as overbearing to him, too (Okay, fine. Eren will probably be just as overbearing). But he can take care of himself, you know. Far better than Armin can, anyways.

“I’ll let Marcel know that you want a double date. But I want tomorrow to be just a me and him deal.”

Slowly, Mikasa releases Eren’s shoulders. She looks like she’s thinking about something really hard, but Eren isn’t sure what. If she at least looked concerned or something, he could reassure her that Marcel is a really great guy. But it doesn’t seem like that’s what she’s thinking of right now.

“Where are you guys planning to go?” Armin asks casually.

Mikasa’s eyes light up, and she nods, looking very much like she wants to know the answer, too.

Eren feels like if he tells them, they’ll insist on showing up. But he also doesn’t feel right to refuse to answer either. Oh well. It is a public place anyways. If they show up, they show up. It’s not like he and Marcel won’t have fun either way.

“We’re going to the zoo.”

“B-but that’s… _our_ place,” Mikasa whispers with an anguished look.

Eren resists the urge to roll his eyes. She can be such a drama queen sometimes. “By that logic, practically everywhere in Eldia County and a little beyond is ‘our place.’”

He doesn’t know why, but Mikasa suddenly blushes red as she tries to hide her face behind her scarf. Does she have a cold? Maybe that’s why she’s behaving so oddly. Actually, maybe that’s why everyone is behaving odd. While he was protected within the walls of the private school, everyone else caught a cold.

“I… I’ll allow it just for tomorrow. But I expect a proper introduction and a way for me and Armin to test him.”

Eren sighs. “Yes, yes. Don’t worry. He’ll pass it all with flying colors. He’s a Warrior, after all.”

*

Okay, this is officially starting to creep him out.

Both Sasha and Connie grab him, crying out, “Eren! Eren! It’s really you!”

“E-Eren?” Even Marco’s voice breaks as his hands hover awkwardly around Eren’s shoulders.

“Eren!” Mina and Thomas yell out as they hit Eren’s back enthusiastically. “We’re so glad that you’re back!”

“Why? Did something happen while I was gone?” Eren can’t help but to glare at Jean as he says this. Just what the hell did that guy do…?

“There was this really dumb rumor that you were taken into another world by black magic,” Mina says.

Thomas nods seriously. “And none of us thought twice about it, even when Jean went around pretending to be you. But when even Mikasa and Armin went along with it… it… It was obviously black magic, you know?”

“Not to mention since he revealed this secret, Floch hasn’t been seen.”

Eren wisely doesn’t mention that that might have to do with last night’s events more so than “revealing” a secret. After all, he had to deal with Zeke and the loose threads from that. And since he already had Floch’s broken camera and wallet, it was much easier and neater to just blame everything on Floch.

“Nothing like that happened,” Eren tells all of them.

Which, of course, immediately prompted them to crowd around him, demanding for answers. 

“I’ll tell you during lunch,” Eren says. “C’mon, let’s get to class.”

“Is… Eren telling us to put class first?” Connie whispers to Sasha.

“He has to be a fake,” she whispers back.

Eren rolls his eyes. “Shut it, both of you!”

*

“What the-?!”

Eren points at the picture of himself wearing the Marley Private Institute for the Gifted that’s in Armin’s locker.

“Where did you get this?” he asks slowly.

“Don’t worry,” Armin tells him with a sweet smile. “We made sure that we’re the only ones with the pictures.”

Eren supposes that is better, but he’s still not comfortable with the fact that these exist. They have to be from when Floch took those pictures. But Porco broke the camera and… shit. They never checked for the memory card. To think that he would forget the most basic thing…!

“Oh, in case you were wondering, that’s Marcel,” Eren says. He taps the person who is grinning next to him in the photo. He then points the guy on the other side of Eren, who is sniggering. “That’s Porco, Marcel’s brother.”

Armin’s smile freezes. “T-that’s Marcel…?”

Eren swears he hears something rip. But when he glances around, he doesn’t find any source of that sound. Mikasa just smiles back at him pleasantly. Did he mishear?

“L-let’s just… g-get to class… hahaha…” Armin says instead, pulling Eren away from his locker.

“H-huh? S-sure. Armin, you okay? You look pretty pale.”

*

Eren doesn’t think he knows half the people gathered around him when he tells them where he’s been during lunch. Once he finishes, there’s a small pause of silence then…

“Yeah, right! The black magic theory makes more sense!”

… You know what? He tried.

“Hey, hey. I’m not supposed to talk about it more than what you’ve heard,” Eren says instead.

It has the effect that he figured it’ll have. Everyone stares at him with sparkling eyes, clearly believing this nonsense about black magic and another world or whatever. Eren supposes going to private school for a bit was like entering a different world. Thinking of it like that, he can’t help but to wonder what that makes Marcel.

The demon knight who betrayed his king to help Eren? Somehow, that doesn’t seem right. Sure, Marcel most definitely has the air of a knight about him, what with his friendly demeanor and athletic capability. But there’s still something a bit off…

“Eren, do you know what happened to Floch?”

He recalls Erwin’s lips pulling into a thin line after Eren “explained” what happened to Zeke and why Zeke had that head injury. Erwin stared at Floch’s broken camera and wallet for a second longer before sighing. From that alone, Eren is pretty sure that they won’t be seeing Floch for a while. That said, Erwin isn’t a monster or anything. He will probably let Floch go without too much of a hassle after a long lecture (At least, that’s how Erwin is with Eren).

“Knowing that guy, I’m sure he’s hiding somewhere, coming up with more ridiculous theories about the world.”

“It’s not ridiculous if it’s correct,” Franz says.

Eren considers the pros and cons of answering that with a sensible response. The cons greatly outweigh the pros. So he just shrugs and turns his attention towards his lunch.

“So did anything fun happen while you were in another world… I-I mean at this ‘private’ school?” Hannah asks, looking gleeful.

“I got a boyfriend.”

There’s a small pause of stunned silence as if none of them expected that. Then again, it’s not like Eren went in at the start of the week with the goal of meeting someone special. Marcel just… happened. In a good kind of way.

“W-what do you mean…?” Daz asks softly as he fearfully looks at something behind Eren. But Daz always look frightened, so Eren figures it doesn’t matter.

“Exactly what it sounds like. I’m dating someone.”

“Whua… Then sign me up for a black magic adventure! I want a boyfriend!” Mina exclaims.

Somehow, that’s not the reaction Eren thinks normal humans should have.

 

*

 

“I heard about what happened,” Grisha says with worried furrow brows. “I thought the security at Marley was better than this. To think an outsider can so easily walk in and attack a teacher… Youth these days are terrifying.”

He must have herd the official news that Eren came up with. Zeke figures that’s for the best. He doesn’t care for this man to know of what really went down.

“I’m fine. What are you doing here anyways? Don’t tell me you took time out of your oh-so-busy schedule to see a failure like me?”

Grisha stares at him for a second longer before sighing. “If you’re able to talk like that, then you’re obviously fine. When I heard that you were attacked by someone underaged from outside of the school, I feared that it might have been… No, it’s nothing. Tell your grandparents that I’m doing fine. They don’t have to keep calling me.”

“Then go visit them!” Zeke snaps.

Without another word, Grisha leaves Zeke’s hospital room. 

Honestly, what an annoyance. That man always pretends to be a “good father” only when it’s convenient for him. No wonder Eren was looking for ways to get rid of him. But that said, Grisha is surprisingly a faithful person. It’s just that his second job requires him to move around silently without ringing too many bells. Although Zeke is grateful that that’s the reason that led Eren to him, he’s conflicted that Grisha didn’t even bother to tell Eren about the truth of what’s going on.

But that’s all figured out. Zeke made sure to let Eren know about Eldia County, the dangerous Ackerman family, as well as the shady underground business that Grisha is a part of. And, as the wonderful older brother who told him the truth, Zeke knows that Eren looks up to him with adoring eyes. 

He can’t wait to finally be dismissed with a clean bill of health from the hospital so he can take his little brother around to cool places.

But before that…

“Yelena? Yeah. It’s me. I overheard Eren and Marcel saying that they’ll go to the zoo for a date tomorrow. Can you watch over them to make sure Marcel doesn’t dare do anything to hurt my little brother? Yeah. Thanks so much. I’ll leave the method to you.”

 

*

 

Floch stares blankly at the picture that Erwin shows him.

“I’m… sorry, but who is this?” he asks.

“There are witnesses who said that they saw you attack this man,” Erwin tells him quietly. He then puts Floch’s broken camera and wallet (both in ziplock bags and labeled as evidence) on the table. “These items were found on that man. The belief is that you attacked him to get these back, but you ran when you realized that you were seen.”

Floch shakes his head. “N-no. That’s not what happened. Those two things were taken by…”

It clicks in his head.

This “witnesses” that Erwin mentioned has to be Eren and the private school kids. Those damned monsters! Just how far do they plan on pushing Floch until they are satisfied?!

“T-this is a mistake! I never attacked this man! I don’t even know this person! This is something that Eren clearly staged!” Floch yells.

Erwin lets out a heavy sigh. He then leans close so that only Floch will be able to hear him.

“We know.”

Then Erwin pulls back and loudly says, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Did you or did you not attack this man?”

Floch isn’t stupid. He understands what this means.

“I… I attacked him,” he says slowly.

Erwin smiles, looking quite like a devil. And isn’t that a laugh? Just yesterday, Floch thought that Eren was a devil. But compared to Erwin, Eren is just a mischievous child, isn’t he? 

“Thank you for being honest.”

 

*

 

Jean finds himself frozen in front of the door to his own home. This is it. He can finally go home. He can finally…

Maybe he should go back. What if he left something at the Jaeger household? And he knows he said he’ll leave before the family gathers to talk about whatever it is that they need to talk about (Jean personally feels that they have a lot to cover, starting with why Eren thought that his dad was cheating and why he thought the best way to go about dealing with it is to sneak into a private school). But it’s just… That was his home for the past week or so, you know?

It was pretty nice there.

Before he can make up his mind, the door to his home opens. His mom stares at him with wide-eyes. 

“J-Jeanbo!” 

And before Jean can stop her, he’s in her embrace as she cries about this and that… It’s embarrassing as hell, but he can’t believe that he actually missed this.

“I’m home,” he mumbles.

*

“How was the camp?” she asks as she places a huge plate of omurice in front of Jean.

Immediately, he finds himself thinking of the past week. The way both Armin and Mikasa belittled him by constantly calling him “Lesser Eren.” The way both of them ordered him around to hold their books and things for them. The way they verbally abused him in annoyed manners that they would never use with Eren (He gets the feeling they might have been taking their annoyances at Eren out on him). The frustrated way they got when Jean couldn’t “answer” like Eren would fast enough for them. The chilling way Carla referred to him as "Eren 2.0" while insisting that Jean liked things a certain way because that's exactly how Eren liked them. 

But none of that has anything on Eren's cold shove out the door as he said, "Your role is done. Bye." 

“It was… it was a trial,” he admits. “I’m really glad to be home.”

His mom wipes her tears, saying something about how he has matured so much.

He doesn’t have the heart to tell her that this isn’t maturing. 

This is trauma.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Thanks for gathering on such a short notice,” Yelena says to the Jaegerist members.
> 
> Jaegerist is, of course, a small “club” of sorts that she established while she was still a student at Marley Private Institute for the Gifted. Everyone here has been saved by Zeke in one way shape or form. Zeke doesn’t actually know about them. Yelena made sure that he thinks that she’s the only one for him. But that’s neither here nor there.
> 
> “I heard that Zeke is in the hospital. What happened?” The accusation in their voice is something that Yelena expected.
> 
> After all, she promised that she would be the perfect person to stand by his side. To have allowed him to come to harm like this, especially by an outsider by the name of Floch, is a shame that she can never recover from. But no worries. She's already taking care of that in the background as they speak.
> 
> “He is recovering well. But there’s a bigger, more pressing issue.”
> 
> “How can there be another pressing issue when Zeke is in the hospital?”
> 
> Yelena smiles. “Zeke just found out that he has a baby brother.”
> 
> That immediately catches their attention. They all straighten. That’s right. If there’s another Jaeger, then as “Jaegerists,” they must pour focus on both of them.
> 
> “His name is Eren, and he is going to be on a date with a Warrior by the name of Marcel tomorrow. Zeke has personally asked me to watch over them to make sure that Marcel is the correct one for him. Therefore…”
> 
> Yelena pulls out her black briefcase bag that she has wanted to brag about for ages now. She displays the super telephoto lens that she bought for her DSLR. Originally, she used to use it to spy on Zeke and sell the beautiful photos of him to the rest of the Jaegerists. But it seems that time has come for her to expand her shooting targets.
> 
> “We’ll document every moment of young Eren’s youth!”
> 
> She relishes the cheers that rises up. That’s right. 
> 
> They are Jaegerists, the biggest fans of the Jaeger family.


	8. Day 7 - Saturday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhh, I can't believe that this is the end already. This story... haha... changed a lot from what I originally planned. Originally, this chapter was supposed to be the "answer" to the question of "Did Eren and Marcel get together?" with Jean as the poor, suffering narrator. But as you can see, that ended up not happening. >_>
> 
> Despite that, thank you so much for sticking with me to get to the end. I really hope that this chapter is worth the ridiculous adventure Eren went on. ^^ 
> 
> Thank you so much for Galli-kun for being the inspiration for this fic. And also to [sleepylyt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepylyt/pseuds/sleepylyt), [dolta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dolta/pseuds/dolta), [eloquentelegance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eloquentelegance/pseuds/eloquentelegance), and [tetsuyacchi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tetsuyacchi/pseuds/tetsuyacchi) for your wonderful comments! It was, as always, very wonderful to have your lovely encouragements as I went on with this story.
> 
> Then without any further ado, please enjoy the conclusion to this silly story of mine. ^^

9:46 am

Target M is spotted sneaking over the walls of Marley Private Institute for the Gifted.

Today’s date is a go.

Yelena grins widely as she prepares her camera. “This is Team Alpha. Target M has left the nest.”

“Team Bravo here. We’re watching Target M’s movements. Nothing suspicious that we see.”

“Team Charlie reporting. The zoo is now open to the public. Nothing seems out of place.”

“Team Delta. We’re positioned at Eren’s house. It smells fucking good here.”

Yelena sighs. The one problem of using others is this. This complete and utter lack of respect for a mission. No wonder none of them ever became Warriors.

“Focus,” she warns.

“We’re Team… Epic?”

Yelena rubs her temples. “Epsilon. You’re Team Epsilon.”

“Yeah, yeah. Team Epic here. We’re ready to hack into any feed within Eldia County. Ughhh… even my work boss don’t push me this hard. Yelena, make sure to let Zeke know that we all helped, okay? I want a head pat at least.”

No harm in being dishonest if it means they’ll do their job.

“Of course. I’m sure Zeke will gladly reward us with head pats and m-maybe even a smile if we present him with the best possible results.”

 

*

 

This is nerve wracking.

Marcel nervously tugs on his collar. Is this okay? Porco and Reiner both said that he was dressed too casually. But Pieck insisted that this is the current fashion trend. Even Annie agreed with her, so it can’t be Pieck pulling a prank. Bertolt shrugged unhelpfully and added that Eren wouldn’t care how Marcel looked as long as Marcel showed up. And while that is very flattering, it doesn’t help Marcel’s nerves at all!

He did make sure to stop by a flower shop to pick up some brightly colored flowers. He isn’t sure if he should’ve done the whole flower meaning thing. But he thought that as long as the flowers were bright and colorful, they should suffice as an offering. 

But now that he’s standing in front of the door to Eren’s house, he finds himself completely frozen stiff.

He should’ve just agreed to the zoo date without this ‘meet the family’ business. Why did he decide to do this as their very first date? And oh god, this is their first date. Their first…

After another beat of hesitation, he finally rings the doorbell.

Here goes nothing.

 

*

 

10:12 am

“Team Delta here. Target M has knocked, and the door has been opened. He looks nervous, but he’s doing well to keep up his polite smile. Damn, I wish I can hear what he’s saying. H-huh? Wait a minute, guys, is that Zeke’s dad?”

Yelena’s eyes widen. Even though she knows better than to break protocol, she can’t stop herself.

“Take a picture and upload it to the group discord! As Jaegerists, we need to appreciate this man as well! Team Epic-”

“Already looking for this man’s files… Huh. There’s some really tight locks around some of these. It looks like Zeke’s father is involved in some really sketchy things.”

Yelena makes another quick decision. “Put it to the side for now. The date today comes first.”

“Okay.”

 

*

 

Red alert. Red alert.

This is bad beyond all bads in the world. 

Eren invited Mikasa and Armin to Saturday brunch. That much is understandable. And he doesn’t get why, but Jean is here, too. Fine, whatever. His mom, obviously, is here, and since this is the rare time his dad is home, he’s here, too.

That’s all fine. 

Up to that much, Eren can grudgingly accept.

But he can’t even begin to understand why Hannes, Detective Erwin, and even Levi are all here.

“What are you talking about, Shitty Brat? Obviously, we’re here for Saturday brunch,” Levi says as if that’s only obvious.

“Levi, language,” Erwin says as he sips his tea.

Hannes chuckles. “Like we can sit still when one of our infamous trio is breaking into adulthood!”

It’s clear that they’re all here to bully the hell out of Marcel and Eren. And if that’s the case, then there’s just one thing to do.

Run.

 

*

 

10:15 am

“Problem! Target E has ran out of the house and is dragging Target M behind him! It looks like today’s plan has been changed!”

Yelena bites her thumbnail. Have they been seen through? Is all of her efforts going to be in vain?

“Team Bravo here. We’re chasing them right now. From the direction we’re headed in, we should arrive in the shopping district in a few minutes.”

“Team Alpha, how should we proceed?”

She closes her eyes and thinks for a second. C’mon. What would Zeke do at a time like this? “Visualize” success, right? Yes. That’s it. All she has to do is think of Zeke’s happy smile when he sees the wonderful pictures of Eren she returns with.

“We’ll have to play by ear,” she tells them over the comms. “Team Charlie, get ready to move from the zoo if we end up going elsewhere. Team Bravo, continue to tail our targets. Team Delta, keep your eyes on the Jaeger household for a bit longer to make sure that the targets don’t turn back and return there.”

“Got it!”

“Team Alpha will keep tabs on open shops and hot date-spot locations. So Team Epsilon-”

“Team Epic. And no worries. I told you. We have everywhere in Eldia County wired. It doesn’t matter where they decide to run. Our eyes will be on them.”

Tch. 

This means that Yelena will be stuck with the maps in the headquarters. Damn it. She was looking forward to using her own cameras to take pictures. But she supposes she can’t complain too much. For now, she’ll just focus on making this mission a success. 

For Zeke’s smile, what can’t she do?

 

*

 

“I-is it okay to just dodge your parents like that?” Marcel asks, worried.

Eren gives him a grin that looks more like a snarl. “If you had walked in, then we would’ve been stuck in there for hours on end. None of them would’ve let us go. Ugh. They’re so annoying.”

“It’s because they’re worried about you,” Marcel says softly. “I’m sure I’d be the same if Porco ever starts dating.”

“Oh, how is Porco taking us anyways?”

Marcel recalls the disgusted scowl on Porco’s face before Porco kicked him and yelled, “Fuck you! I don’t care! Just stop getting me involved in your stupid drama!”

“He supports us 110%!”

Eren blushes a little and ducks his head. “Ah, how nice. I wish my family can be as easy-going.”

For now, Marcel decides against telling Eren about the rest of his family. That can come after the two of them solve this.

“Are you feeling hungry? Shall we grab something to eat first?”

Marcel nods. “That sounds great."

And before he forgets… He hands the bouquet of flowers over to Eren. 

“I meant to give this earlier but uh… haha… It looks like you’ll be stuck carrying it everywhere today.”

“Y-you know you didn’t have to…” is what Eren says. But the shy blush as he takes the bouquet more than makes Marcel glad that he did.

“Eren.” Marcel leans in close to whisper in Eren’s ear. “Good morning.”

It must have tickled, because Eren giggles, holding the ear. Then he rubs his nose against Marcel’s. 

“Good morning, you dork.”

The two laugh. 

 

*

 

10:23 am

“Aw man, I want a lover.”

“Don’t clog up the comms with unnecessary comments, Team Bravo,” Yelena warns.

“It’s fine with one or two comments, isn’t it? Besides, look at all these cute pictures we’ve got!”

“Team Delta here. Just wanted to inform that aside from the parental units, all the extras seem to have ran out of the house. They’re probably going to be chasing our Targets.”

Yelena frowns. “Got it. Team Delta, try to track as many of them as you can. We’ll have to know their locations.”

“Don’t think that’ll be too big of an issue. Everyone seems to be running for the zoo.”

 

*

 

“My, if it isn’t Eren!” is the only warning they have before Pixis drunkenly gives them a mocking salute with his wine bottle.

Eren doesn’t like this.

“Who’s this?” Pixis asks as he stares at the bouquet in Eren’s hands. 

At the very least, please refer to the person standing next to Eren and not the flowers. 

“This is Marcel,” Eren says slowly. He’s not sure if he should trust Pixis just yet. This guy is known to partner up with Detective Erwin. But that can easily be because Erwin is a cop.

“And judging from the flowers and how well both of you are dressed, I’d say it’s a date,” Pixis says with a drunk smile.

But the sharp glint in his eyes are something that Eren cannot miss. This stupid drunkard is using alcohol as a reason to harass them, isn’t he? Eren stands protectively in front of Marcel, earning himself an amused quirk of the brow from Marcel.

“Then it’s perfect!” Pixis says with a loud laugh. He grabs both of them by the shoulder. “I acquired some really nice property that I recently turned into a karaoke place! C’mon, you guys can be the first customers!”

Eren knew that there was something suspicious about Pixis approaching them! He tries to squirm away when he spots the look in Marcel’s eyes.

“Karaoke?” he asks, looking awed.

Oh, come on. When Marcel look this excited, Eren’ll end up the villain if he refuses.

Taking a deep breath, he forces himself to smile.

“W-we’ll help you out, Mr. Pixis.”

 

*

 

10:47 am

“This is bad.”

Yelena dreads those words. “What is it, Team… Epic?”

“The place that drunkard is taking our Targets is too new. It hasn’t been wired into the rest of the system yet. I don’t have any eyes in there.”

What?! To think they’d encounter such a problem! Damn. These people are much more crafty than she first gave them credit for.

Yelena has no choice. “I’m going in. Team Bravo, stand by to offer me back up. Team Epic, for now, use Team Delta’s help to mark where the rest of the extras are in case they try to run interference. Everyone else, get ready to move even without my explicit orders.”

“Got it!”

 

*

 

“Mr. Pixis, the wiring is showing in the halls,” Eren remarks as he glances around.

Marcel follows his gaze to the very shabby building. This place doesn’t look like it’s finished. How can they be ready for their first customers? And from how suspiciously Eren glares at everything, Marcel already knows that this might be some kind of a trap.

“Don’t worry. The rooms are finished. We’ll probably need a bit more funding for the halls, though. Hahaha! Have you guys had breakfast? I’ll bring some food in for you.”

“If it’s poisoned or something weird has been done to the food, I’ll throw it to the ground,” Eren tells Pixis without any hesitation.

Marcel doesn’t know how, but Pixis seems to find that hilarious. 

“Oh, Eren! You know I’d never waste food like that! Don’t worry. You two are safe with me! I’ll even throw in some wine for you two-”

“It’s too early to drink,” Eren says as if the problem of two underaged kids drinking is that it’s the morning.

Marcel wonders if it’s okay for him to find this as charming as he does.

“Here you are,” Pixis says, opening the door to one of the rooms.

As he promised, the room is fully finished and nicely furnished. It looks very much like a karaoke place that he’s read so much about in Porco’s mangas. Marcel may be too excited, but he doesn’t miss the fact that this room doesn’t look to have any escapes. The ceiling tiles doesn’t look movable. The floor looks concrete. He bets the walls are thick for the sake of soundproofing. Once they enter, the only exit is going to be through this door.

“You guys enjoy!” Pixis says lightly. He waves at them and closes the door.

Marcel doesn’t miss the lock clicking into place. Haha. How cute. Typically, isn’t the normal response to two people dating to not leave them alone in a locked room?

Immediately, Eren puts the bouquet of flowers down on the table. Then he goes to check the ceiling and the walls, looking frustrated. And while Marcel understands that, he can’t help but to think that it’s such a waste. 

“We’re locked in anyways,” he drawls slowly as he sits down on one of the couches.

Eren slowly turns to him. The annoyance doesn’t fade from his face, but he seems to have caught on that Marcel has a plan. Marcel presses a finger to his lips and motions for Eren to come close. Curiosity seems to have won, because Eren sits down next to Marcel on the couch.

That won’t do.

If this place is exactly as Marcel guesses, then there’s most likely at least one security camera set up. He imagines that there’s no audio, or else it’ll get exhausting to listen to the people screaming along to the lyrics. Of course, there’s also a possibility that there is an audio feed that gets cut off once you turn the karaoke machine on. Either way, Marcel is going to move with the assumption that their every word and every action are being observed.

He sneaks his arm around Eren’s waist and pulls him close so that Eren is partly on Marcel’s lap.

“M-Marcel…?” Eren asks, sound more flustered than anything else.

Now that he’s gotten this far, Marcel realizes just exactly what kind of position this is. He feels his heart rate double in speed as his cheeks grow hot. If this was anyone else, he’s certain that he would have been able to keep up his usual cool exterior. But because it’s Eren… because it’s someone that Marcel likes so much, he finds his composure shattering to bits at Eren’s flustered face.

What kind of a crummy plan is this anyways? He’s going to turn their intimate moment into something for others to watch to free them? Can his pride really allow that?

“L-let’s just sing a song!” Marcel finds himself saying as he looks away from Eren’s eyes. 

There’s a small pause before Eren grabs Marcel’s face with both hands. “Hey, look at me.”

Their eyes meet, and slowly, Marcel can feel the distance between them shrinking. Is this really okay? To use Eren like this? Well, Marcel does want a kiss, definitely. But to use that for an ulterior purpose? Isn’t that…?

Eren tilts his head and pulls close to Marcel’s ear. “It’s fine. I get what you’re doing.”

With that as the only warning, Eren lightly bites Marcel’s ear. And honestly? Marcel has no idea what to do. Where should he put his hands? He received Eren’s blessings, so he’s allowed to just… touch Eren? Right? Then… where? What? Oh no, why is his brain short-circuiting at the most important part? Why is he suddenly blanking out on all the romance novels and mangas that he's stolen from Porco to read?

Eren pulls back, looking at Marcel worriedly. “You don’t want to?”

… It’s okay to blame Eren for this later, right?

Marcel pushes Eren down on the couch and grins. Eren laughs, and that has to be because Eren also feels these strange jitters in his stomach, right? A feeling quite like they’re flying. Like how Marcel always guessed it might feel to be high. An exhilarating feeling that leaves nothing but giggles and shy kisses behind. As their lips meet, awkwardly crushing their noses before they pull away, laughing.

“My, you two sure move fast.”

Marcel lazily glance up at Pixis, who stares at them with an amused raise of the brow. With as friendly a smile as he can make it, Marcel smiles back. 

Pixis puts a tray of pancakes, fruits, syrup, and milk on the table. He hesitates for a second before reaching into his pocket and carefully setting down a box of condoms.

“Oh, and before you two accuse me of horrible things, no, there are no cameras or anything like that set up in this room. Think of it as a… small, private gift from a well-meaning adult.”

Then Pixis is gone, leaving the room unlocked this time.

“What a strange man,” Marcel finds himself admitting.

“Oh, perfect. I’m starving.”

And without any regards to what they were doing just moments before, Eren pushes Marcel off to go for the food. To say that he’s hurt is an understatement.

“I… Ere-”

A giant strawberry ends up in his mouth the minute he opens it to speak. Marcel stares blankly at Eren who grins widely.

“Can’t have fun if we don’t have any energy, right?”

When Eren phrases it like that, Marcel grudgingly agrees. He eats the strawberry before opening his mouth for more. Eren laughs at that.

“Yes, yes. Come here, you cute lug.”

“You know, Eren. Even if we don’t end up going to the zoo, I don’t mind where we spend our date as long as I’m with you.”

Eren rolls his eyes. “You won’t be saying that when Detective Erwin gets here to grill you. So c’mon, let’s finish quickly and get out of here before the real headaches get here.”

 

*

 

10:57 am

“I’m here,” Yelena reports to the rest of the group. Then to make sure that their constant chats don’t bother her, she mutes them but leaves her comm on so that they can hear exactly what’s happening.

She gets out of her car and walks towards the broken down building that looks like it’s still being remodeled. There. She sees the man that approached their targets.

“Are you lost?” the man asks with a kindly smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “This place is still under renovations.”

And this is what her fake ID is for.

She pulls it out and shows it. There are many benefits of working for Marley, but this is probably the most useful one. Fake IDs to pretend to be part of the law enforcement.

“I received a report that two teenagers were kidnapped by a drunkard.”

“My, I’m deeply saddened to hear that,” the man says with a kind smile. “But in Eldia County, our law enforcers don’t get involve when Eren Jaeger or the Ackerman family is. So why don’t you try this again, Young Lady?”

… What? W-what the hell does that mean? This is the norm? And they all just accept this kind of corruption?

No use. She’s going to have to get violent. She pretends to pull out a gun, only to feel something cold against her throat. A knife? When did someone even get there?

“Anka, be gentle. It’ll be a shame to lose a beauty due to a… slip of the hand,” the man says with a light chuckle.

Yelena doesn’t like this. What the hell are these people? 

“Who are you working for?” the man asks. The good mood from before is gone as he glares at Yelena. 

Well, Yelena knows when to turn tail. She holds her hands in the air to show that she means no harm.

“I’m here from an interested party to make sure that Eren has a wonderful day today.”

The man blinks in surprise before laughing. “Is it like that? Then we’re all on the same side! Anka, let her go.”

“But sir-”

He shakes his head.

Yelena feels the knife pull away from her throat. She relaxes. 

“I am curious, though. Why are you people so interested in Eren’s happiness?” she asks. 

The man grins widely. “You can think of it as a… payment for a long ago sin.”

Yelena realizes that she put her guard down too soon. She feels something drop heavily on her head and finds her conscious swim.

She can only hope that her incompetent team will be able to do something with her out.

 

*

 

It looks like there’s some kind of a commotion happening near the entrance, so the two of them leave through the back door.

“I can’t believe absolutely nothing is guarded,” Marcel sighs with a shake of his head.

“If things are that well-guarded, no one will want to come here,” Eren explains. 

Just what kind of shady businesses do people plan on doing at a karaoke place? Just sing and leave, damn it.

“But you know, I’m kinda shocked you trusted the food but not the box of condoms.”

Eren scowls. “Get your mind out of the gutter. Besides, Pixis said that the food is fine but he never said that the box is. With snakes like him, it’s much better to be safe than sorry.”

Yet it’s fine to trust the words of a snake? Marcel finds Eren’s choosiness rather endearing.

“Well then, where shall we go? I imagine by now, your family and friends are probably waiting for us at the zoo. Do you want to face them?”

Eren makes a face. 

Yeah, Marcel thought so. He finds himself chuckling. 

“You know, I bet they’re all over Eldia County…”

Marcel raises a brow. “Oh? So where do you suggest we go then?”

Eren sniggers and takes Marcel’s hand. 

“Let’s go somewhere they’ll never guess!”

 

*

 

6:29 pm

Yelena slowly wakes up in the hospital in the general area. All around her are the different members of the Jaegerists that she asked to help her out for today. They look tired and beaten. Did they fight that man and whoever else was with him in order to rescue her?

She feels a bit touched, but she’s also annoyed at them for abandoning their mission.

“Yelena, you’re awake!” one of them exclaims in relief.

They’re immediately hushed by the nurses walking by. 

“What happened?” she asks them.

“That old man that got you? He looked like he had a grudge against you. Did you do something to him?”

That’s not answering her question. 

“No. I’ve never met him in my life.”

They sigh. “That’s because you only have eyes for Zeke. Anyone else, you completely forget about.”

She begs to differ! She now has two more Jaegers to add to her very short list of people to care about.

Hm?

Now that she’s paying attention, where are the Team Bravo members? When she asks, she receives matching grins from the others.

“Check discord.”

And behold, their discord is filled with beautiful shots of Eren and Marcel, playing at the beach. There’s some of the two of them on the train. Holding hands and giggling like that, they truly seem to embody the spirit of youth that Zeke once talked about.

“They left Eldia County, huh?” She finds herself sighing.

“Yeah,” Team Epic’s lead says, nodding sadly. “I wanted to know what they were talking about to look so happy like that.”

“But with this, at least we can report back to Zeke of the successful date!”

“Next time, let’s widen our web so that we can watch their every movement!”

Yelena blinks. “Next time?”

The team laughs brightly. “Of course! Look at them! There’s bound to be a next time!”

She meant that more as in, “You guys are going to help me for next time, too?” But she supposes that’s answer enough. 

Yelena finds herself smiling despite herself.

“Yes! Let’s make sure next time is a success, too!”

 

*

 

“If you’re tired, you’re more than welcome to use my shoulder,” Marcel tells Eren softly as the two of them ride the train back home.

“‘M not tired,” Eren mumbles. His head begins to nod, but he tries stubbornly to not fall asleep.

Marcel chuckles. “You know what’ll wake you up?”

He presses a soft kiss to Eren’s temple. And when that gets him nothing, he kisses Eren’s eyes, nose, cheeks, then-

Thank god for his Warrior training for giving him such great reflex.

He pushes himself and Eren apart just in time for a foot to stomp down where his head used to be. Dangerous! This is way too dangerous!

“You have some nerve to run, vermin.”

But if there’s one thing that’s good, as promised, Eren is now fully awake. He puts his hands up to show that he’s not a threat, so Marcel quickly copies him.

“M-Mikasa, put down that hammer… H-he didn’t run because he didn’t want to meet you guys. I-I dragged him off, remember?”

“Don’t protect him, Eren. It makes him that much more suspicious,” says a kindly smiling boy with blonde hair.

Marcel gets the feeling that this is Mikasa and Armin that Eren mentioned.

So much for dodging meeting the family and friends today. 

With as charming a smile as he can manage, Marcel says, “Hello, nice to meet you. I’m Marcel, Eren’s boyfriend.”

*

Two months later, Marcel gets back at Eren by introducing him to the rest of the Galliards, which pretty much means Porco continuously kicking Marcel’s chair under the table while Eren sweats bullets under the Galliards very much Russian tastes in jokes… 

But that’s a story for another time.

 

 

 

_Fin._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zeke stares at the pictures that Yelena painstakingly printed out in best possible quality for a second longer. He closes his eyes and rubs his temples.
> 
> “To think I’d lose my little brother before I can even meet him properly… But… he does look happy.”
> 
> It’s not for her, but the smile on Zeke’s face is more than enough reward for the craziness that she had to endure.
> 
> Yelena makes sure to upload that to the discord for everyone to celebrate their hard work. 
> 
> “Alright, time to focus on getting better so I can one-up this beach trip!”
> 
> Any normal person would have questioned why Zeke felt the need to compete against Eren’s boyfriend. But Yelena is… not quite normal.
> 
> “I shall provide you any support you need!” she says delightedly.
> 
> *
> 
> This group accidentally runs into Levi’s when Marcel and Eren goes on a date to an aquarium, which immediately sparks a small war between the two… 
> 
> But that is also a story for another time. 


End file.
